I continued my service-learning experience with my
second week at Northeast Middle School on Monday October 22nd. I worked
with young boys and girls on creating drawings, playing games, but most
importantly working with them on their homework. It was intriguing for me
when I noticed how some children tried very hard with their work, while others
did the bare minimum by looking at the answers that the children that worked
through the problems got instead of thinking for themselves. For me, this
is an imperative issue that needs to be worked on because children need to be
motivated to learn and not focus on getting the easy way out of things.
During the next weeks of my service I will work on getting each student to
fully participate, encouraging him or her to become dedicated and persistent in
his or her pursuit of positive outcomes in their future.
Bharati Mukherjee’s short story, “A Father”, Stephanie Shapiro’s article,
“Serving Up Hope”, Richard Hague’s poem “Directions for Resisting the SAT, and
Gary Gildner’s poem “First Practice”, all connect with my service learning
experience regarding the values of faith and traditions and how they contribute
with a person’s relationships with themselves as individuals as well as with
others. In “A Father” the themes of tradition and faith are very evident
through the character Mr. Bhowmick, and they are a prominent part of the
story. This main character has a close, spiritual relationship with idols
and shrines, and he recites prayers to the patron goddess of his family
daily. Mr. Bhowmick seems to let his faith preoccupy and dictate every
part of his life. Instead of allowing himself to live a happy life, he
sees simple things that are folly superstitions and puts them into greater context
because of his faith. From the story we find out that this Indian
father’s wife made him leave his successful, happy life to go to America.
He holds tight to his Indian values much to the chagrin of his wife and
daughter who keep their lives deeply rooted in American values. The theme
of the relationships between men and women is also an important aspect of this
story. It is clear that Mr. Bhowmick is unhappy that his daughter chose
to become pregnant through artificial insemination, which completely goes against
his faith. From reading the story we can see that he is jealous of how
his own daughter has easily become successful when he compares it to his
hardship and struggle of trying to find stability with his new life in
Detroit. He believes that males are very prominent in society and that
they have every right to the most success. When his daughter, Babli,
reveals that there is no father to her baby, she is struck by her father and
not her mother. Babli tries to explain that the donor is a good genetic
candidate, but the father focuses on how his daughter has broken tradition and
social expectations. This short story proves that tradition and faith can
have a negative affect on families.
Stephanie Shapiro’s article, “Serving Up Hope”, was very uplifting and
inspiring because it was about helping the less fortunate realize their own
potential in the world and know that they are valued. Bridget and Galen
Sampson allowed people to develop their own strengths by letting previous drug
users train with Galen who would teach them culinary skills to get them on a
better path of life. The couple has proven that giving back to your
community and allowing people to develop their own strengths can contribute to
developing your own strengths as well. The article mentions how this
couple from Baltimore grew in their business potential and individual strength
through collaborating to open Dogwood Deli, which
enables people to learn how to cook and serves as a comfortable transition
period for people who are rehabilitating from drug use. These people
learn about work ethic, and are blessed to be surrounded by a good support
system to keep them motivated. Through their faith in social justice,
this selfless couple was driven to give back to their community, give hope to
its citizens, and change people’s lives for the better. They showed that
it is possible for people to create their own path to success and that they
should recognize that they are important and valued.
Richard Hague’s poem, “Directions for Resisting the SAT”, mentions the
common tradition that all high school students go through. They are
constantly pressured by teachers and other outside sources to do well on this
testing in order to get into good colleges. However this poem gives us
advice on how we should not let the SAT define us as students and affect how we
should live our lives. We also should never follow the norm of what
others may do because we need to demonstrate our individuality. The
speaker stresses that we should always make our own decisions by saying, “Make
your marks on everything” and not focus on what others have to say about our
choices. The speaker is letting us know that we should not let the
results of one test predict how our futures will turn out and not let the SAT
tamper with our passions, dreams, and goals.
Gary Gildner’s poem, “First Practice” takes a different approach by emphasizing
how competition is a good thing and that it is necessary for success at least
according to Coach Clifford Hill. An athlete describes how his coach is
pushing his team to fight and struggle for success in order for them to have
faith in themselves. He may be overbearing and overwhelming, but his
technique proves to be effective because intimidation can lead to good
results. The initial experience of this first practice is very pressuring
for this high school football team, but the coach is trying to open their eyes
to the many opportunities and potential they have to be a great team.
This experience can also determine how willing you are to work hard now and for
any future endeavors. This coach is doing his best to motivate his team
to work as hard as they can to achieve success. He has faith in his team,
and he wants his team to be strong and have faith that they can be legendary.
During my service I noticed that there was one student with whom I worked that
was extremely committed to her studies. She has been at school every
week, and I am enthralled at how motivated this young girl is to get a better
education and improve her life. Unlike some of the students in her class,
this student tries hard to succeed, and it is amazing to see how well she is
excelling. Some of the students lack faith in themselves, resulting in
their discouragement to attempt to do their work. It is extremely
important for the class as a whole to willingly learn, and they need to be
constantly motivated in order to do so. I will work closely with the
students next week to ensure that all students will be excelling and realize
that they have the potential to do anything to which they put their
minds. If lack of an education is an accepted trait or tradition in their
families, these children need to break away from these hindrances by working
hard in school as they pursue happy and healthy lives.
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