College needs to offer services learning - Essay Example

The educational value to the student is virtually nil (except that they learn that coerced voluntarism is a really bad idea).”1 Many people think service learning would be a great experience for college students in order so that they would gain college credit. However, communities do not necessarily have the money to fund service learning projects, unless they are sponsored by companies that can afford to sustain such programs and projects. It is unlikely that many organizations would be willing to freely donate of their time and resources in order to institute service learning programs for their communities, unless they could see direct benefits coming to their respective organizations.

Most organizations would not be willing to donate time and money in order to see service learning projects come to light. However, advocates of service learning would argue otherwise. “Service learning provides a compelling reason to learn, teaches the skills of civic participation and develops an ethic of service and civic responsibility. Service learning increases motivation and retention of academic skills as specific learning goals are tied to community needs.”2 Also, advocates of service learning would argue that beyond empirical numbers, service learning has a beneficial effect on those who serve as well as members of a community.

“Service-learning can bring learning to life for students. It can re-ignite disaffected students…who need skills in working together. It can bring members of the community into contact with young people, reminding both groups of the values of tolerance and understanding. Its benefits are numerous.”3 However, such a program of required service learning in college would be difficult to initiate and monitor. “Within the service-learning cycle, project monitoring is an efficient, systematic method