Service-Learning & Perspective
Creator: Elizabeth Cadden
This digital artifact is a blog post reflecting on a specific situation that caught my attention at my service site, and how I was forced to see it from different perspectives. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At United South End Settlements, I work in an after school classroom with children ages three to four. I have noticed throughout the duration of the semester that there is one little boy who has always been an outsider from the group of children. He never plays with the other kids, he never listens to the teacher, and he is always off doing something that he isn’t supposed to be doing. The teachers often refer to him as “Dennis the Menace” because there seems to be nothing they can do to get him to follow instructions or interact with other children in the class. It is because of this endless frustration that the teachers often let him wander the classroom during lessons, because it often becomes a distraction. Although it may get frustrating, I do respect that the teacher always try their best to communicate with him and make him feel included in the most respectful way. They also have to calculate the best course of action in order to benefit the entire class. As a volunteer, I often struggle with this situation because no matter how much I would like to help, there is a fine line between trying to help the student and encouraging these unacceptable behaviors.
In order to make sense of this situation, I needed to see it from the teachers’ perspective. Although I was surprised at how often they stopped trying to discipline him or get him to listen, I needed to understand that they cannot allow this one child to be a distraction from the lessons for the other 10-15 children in the class. At first, it may have seemed unfair to the student, but I understand why the teachers make the decisions they do in order to benefit the majority of the class. Seeing things from the teachers’ perspectives, as well as the student’s, has allowed me to view the situation in a neutral way.
This situation has shown me that a teacher’s attention cannot always be equally distributed in an educational setting, especially in larger classes. I have also observed that not all children learn and interact in the same way, and this can be applied to all aspects of life, not solely with children. This realization has helped me to grow my relationships with the children because it has allowed me to relate to them even more. Being a part of this community has helped to open up my eyes to the importance of education that caters to many different “types” of children, and it has shown me the importance of inclusiveness, even with children at such a young age. As someone who only volunteers once a week, it is often difficult to be confident in my role because
I do not have the same relationships with the children as the teachers do. It is hard to balance when I should and shouldn’t intervene in a classroom situation, and I have come to realize that I cannot assume what the classroom environment is like all of the time when I am only there for 3 hours per week. In this specific situation, this may have been the reason why I assumed that the teachers were being dismissive to the student, but this may not be reflective of their interactions with the student on a broader scale. It is easy to judge a situation based on first impressions, but this situation has taught me that I cannot assume the teacher’s role and relationships with the children based on the little time I spend with them.