"When people focus on others' needs and deficiencies, it can de-emphasize their assets and strengths, weaken their ability to help themselves, and empower the professionals who serve them" (pg. 299-300 of Young People as Competent Citizens) .
This quote really stood out to me. While I think careers in public and community service are very noble, they can often contribute to the problems they are trying to solve. When outsiders enter a community to try and provide what the community "lacks," a dependency relationship is created, rather than the strengthening of the community from within to solve whatever the problem was. While I do think providing services is important for short term progress, they are just a band-aids to the change that must take place within a community. For example, a tutoring program that brings well educated students into inner cities to tutor helps the students succeed in school, but it does not address the issue of failing inner city schools.
Maybe I'm being too critical, but I don't think that community service, without community and political activism, can result in real change.
2 comments:
I actually strongly agree with your opinion here. Doing such tutoring programs is okay in short-term however, even once those tutors leave, it is back to where it was. A lot of times community service can be almost degrading... the quote says it right that "it can de-emphasize their assets" and "weaken their ability to help themselves." All that said, your analogy of a band-aid is a good one. Band-aids can do a lot of help though, however small they may be.
This has been an issue that I have struggled with. About a year ago I went to a small rural town in Mexico on a community service trip. We worked on creating paths in the jungle to help the town develop an herbal garden so as to promote Eco-tourism. This would eventually allow them to become a self sufficient community. While I was incredibly inspired by the leader of the project and passionate about what I was doing, I was also aware of the fact that we (the community service group) were making things more complicated for the native workers. I was also afraid that we were degrading the townspeople in some way. It was difficult to return to the States and get back into my routines because I felt like I had done what some would consider "honorable work", but what was I doing about it now? I agree with the fact that band-aids can be helpful but I also feel that without the follow up of political activism there is little telling of what the band-aid has actually accomplished.
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