Service Learning - Kahne and Westheimer

When reading In the Service of What? I was reminded of an article that popped up on my Facebook feed a while ago called "Why your 2-week service trip is a waste of time," or something to that effect. I'll admit I didn't read that article but when I looked up that phrase after reading In the Service of What, I was surprised to see so many of them out there. So many people have opinions and reasons as to why these service projects don't work. Like Kahne and Westheimer said, "Indeed, there is a reason for concern that service experiences frequently fail to achieve either additive or transformative goals. I skimmed through and read a couple of the articles I found and a lot of them talked about how many were there for show and because the project was somewhere warm. When you are there for only a week there is no time to fix things, only slap a little bandaid on it.

https://intentionaltravelers.com/problems-with-mission-trips/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/magazine/the-voluntourists-dilemma.html

These were the best two articles on it I found. The first does go on to give some solution ideas, which I appreciate. So many articles will tear something apart but not bother to give an alternative.

I hope people do not read this post and thing that I am against volunteering, that is not at all what I'm trying to say. I get frustrated sometimes because people like Bush and Reagan and Kennedy put everything on the people when the few people in power have the power to make actual changes.