As I was reading tactics of hope, I was appalled by what the English professor from the story starting on 122 did. This proves that "when institutional priorities intersect with community needs, people can get hurt. Projects can lead to bitterness and disillusionment" (122). The professor only thought about his own needs and desires and basically USED Jane's organization. I was pisssssed off. This guy just makes academics look like horrible people in general.

This is only one example of a community engagement project gone horribly, horribly wrong, and I'm sure there are others, but I'm glad that Jane did not discount working with a university forever. I wouldn't have blamed her if she did.

However, this, again, reminded me a lot of my experiences with the COE because it seems that we only think of our needs (we meaning the students). We used our "community partners" to fulfill our own needs without even really focusing on what the schools needed. At the same time, there is an institutional problem because we were never taught how to address the schools' needs. We then wrote about these students and "profited" (through good grades) from our work with them. I like to think that I brought something to them, but in the case of my first "service learning" experience, I'm not really sure that they did. Maybe I helped a few kids from getting cuts from the metal edge on the aluminum foil box, but I'm not really sure I made a lasting impact on their academic lives.

Even in my more advanced field work, when I was with a class for an entire year, two to three times a week, I was usually only focused on how this work was going to benefit me, and I admit, as much as I loved the students in that class, I did it to complete an assignment. I think that's a huge problem with service learning programs. Complete the required hours and write a paper and get a good grade. Done. There's no chance to build a relationship with the partners, and those relationships are so important.

I think that the COE (and the University in general) should do a major overhaul of the service learning programs. That way, we can actually bring hope to our community partners instead of just bringing some sort of literacy that we believe is superior to their own literacies.