Before I started service learning, I assumed that there would be a ton of kids coming to tutoring every day. As it turns out, that is not usually the case. Most of the students that come in were forced to by their teachers or parents. When I was helping the math teacher, there were no students until after a test or quiz, because at Carmen, if you fail something, you have to come to the after school program to prepare to retake it. Now I am manning the writing center, and usually there are one or two students whose teachers made them come get help on a paper or writing assignment. I guess what shocked me is the lack of intrinsic motivation I see in the students. The sad part is that the students I have seen in the writing center have a lot of potential. One girl, a junior, was told to come in to get help with her college entrance essay (an assignment for English class). I read it and made a couple grammar corrections, but it was good, and I asked her where she was applying. She told me that she wasn't applying to college. It just discourages me to know that these students have already checked out without even getting a chance to discover what they like and might want to do someday, but I suppose the best I can do is try to encourage them and help them out as much as I can when I am there, and hope that they take it to heart.
Even so, I feel like I'm getting a good experience out of my service learning. I like working with students, and it's giving me a good idea of what working with students is actually like, even though I don't obviously see everything that goes on from a day-to-day basis in a high school.
