in our discussions about community based learning ... we agreed that this learning has to be both ways. learners give to the community and the community gives back.
A question was raised asking what could the community give back to our learners and I responded the feeling of achievement is more than enough !
I could not have been more wrong even if i tried !!
As the discussion went on ... and we started to propose ideas about community based projects, most of the projects circulated around the idea of raising money to the underprivileged.
ideas included adopting poor families and visits to public schools in order to help them and then it hit me "how would this give back to the learner if all we are doing is degrading the human being who happened to be less fortunate or lacking the financial resources to enable him to be a member of the giving community??" if we keep teaching our students to give just because them have more, this will create a binary community of zeros and ones !
ones= giving and zeros = receiving.
how does giving affect the receiving part? how does the upper hand help in developing the community compared to the sharing hand ?
how can we engage our students in a community service where they learn how to integrate their resources with others?
how can we engage them into a public service side by side with the public, experimental and language schools students to create a more harmonious community where each member gives and receives learning and help?
If we want a better community we have to highlight the fact that every member has something to give and that we need to compliment each others.
A question was raised asking what could the community give back to our learners and I responded the feeling of achievement is more than enough !
I could not have been more wrong even if i tried !!
As the discussion went on ... and we started to propose ideas about community based projects, most of the projects circulated around the idea of raising money to the underprivileged.
ideas included adopting poor families and visits to public schools in order to help them and then it hit me "how would this give back to the learner if all we are doing is degrading the human being who happened to be less fortunate or lacking the financial resources to enable him to be a member of the giving community??" if we keep teaching our students to give just because them have more, this will create a binary community of zeros and ones !
ones= giving and zeros = receiving.
how does giving affect the receiving part? how does the upper hand help in developing the community compared to the sharing hand ?
how can we engage our students in a community service where they learn how to integrate their resources with others?
how can we engage them into a public service side by side with the public, experimental and language schools students to create a more harmonious community where each member gives and receives learning and help?
If we want a better community we have to highlight the fact that every member has something to give and that we need to compliment each others.
I once ran out of salt and it was too late to buy any ... i asked my Janitor's son for some ... he couldn't be happier to help ... his response was "gladly ... with pleasure" ... given the opportunity to help made him feel good and made us equal- which we are and we should be-
If we can't think of a community based learning where we are all active members of the community giving and receiving ... then don't bother and just keep raising your ones and lowering your zeros!
Your post reflects some engaged thinking on your part, Reham. The questions you posed require a lot of thought, debate and discussion at a personal and community level. They are not easily answered because we are conditioned to think as ones and zeroes. Looking forward to the next class, inshaa Allah!
ReplyDeletethanks Dr. i hope thinking together would answer a lot of those questions.
ReplyDeleteI am looking to share these fruitful thoughts Reham.
ReplyDelete