The Heart of Service Learning
Ms. Dye, Ms. Schwenkler and Joni
For teachers, never is anything so profoundly felt when experienced through the eyes of our students. Today, we experienced what the heart of service learning feels like.
It was our first day of work and we helped to put a tin roof on a young family’s home. They originally had a poorly constructed bamboo roof that leaked profusely when it rained. The leakage was so bad that the smallest child, two year-old Benjamin, has persistent bronchitis.
The home consisted of two small rooms: the living quarters and the shared sleep quarters of the family of five. The only other barrier between the elements were the flimsy, ply-wood walls that were already puckering from the rain.
Our work was just carrying supplies and helping to clear the debris of the old roof. This gave us a lot of down time which we spent with Vexpa, Jormana and Benjamin, the small children who lived in the home. They were so welcoming; they brought out books and coloring supplies. At one point, the three of us, Ms. Schwenkler, Ms. Dye and myself, stopped and took in the beautiful interaction between the little Peruvian kids and our lovely students. Our students were so very attentive and warm to the little ones.
At separate moments during the work day, each and every student came up to us and talked about how they wanted to help more and create projects of true advocacy. For example, one of our students wants to do a toy drive for the children of Lobitos; another wants to put up fliers around our school and the NYC community to make people aware of WAVES for Development and the work that they do. This is what service learning feels like, students jumping in without fear and opening their hearts and minds to others.
The day ended joyously with some of us helping little kids clean up the beach and others communing with the wonder of Lobitos, the “tasty” waves. As the three of us had some time to ourselves after the students had lights out, we reflected on the day and our souls filled when we spoke about how our students truly wanted to be active and help. We could not have been more proud and we continue to be so every step of this adventure.
