Sociology
Ivy Klein
November 20, 2007
Service Learning Paper
R. Aponte 4041
Service Learning Essay
I recently volunteered at George Washington Community School as a one on one mentor for students that needed some extra help. The program assigned me two girls; one who was in the 9th grade and another who was in the 8th grade. As their mentor, I would meet with each of them for approximately and hour every Tuesday morning to help each one with homework assignments, class work they did not understand, and also to talk with them to see how they were doing, showing genuine interest. The organization works with these kids to bring them into contact with a mentor who will support them and perhaps inspire them to work their way through the hardships of going to school in an urban setting so that they may accomplish more in their lives then they thought possible.
The experience can be substantially linked to many of the issues we have covered thus far in class. The one overbearing issue viewed by this organization is that of the socialization of young people into a productive society. We have found that the environment into which a child is introduced contributes a major part of that child’s development. The neighborhood in which the school is located is that of the working class. These areas do not necessarily promote the growth many people find acceptable. These areas are riddled with gangs and teen pregnancy. The mentoring program sought to help those students which the school believed would best benefit from the help to rise above what they were expected to be. Much of the time they are not expected to be anything more then the generations before them, holding low paying, low skill jobs and living in environments just short of squalor
With little motivation from family, and teachers being pulled in many directions by the hundreds of students they see each day, it becomes hard for these kids to feel accomplished, or even strive to accomplish the most mundane of tasks. The two girls I mentored at George Washington were two very distinct examples of how the life style in which they grew has made detrimental impacts on their desire to succeed.
The first of these girls, Tiona, is in the 8th grade and extraordinarily bright. However, her innumerable cousins, siblings, and stepsiblings have given their family name a very bad reputation. She has seen them disgrace her family left and right, this subsequently has instilled into her the idea that, being who she is and having the family that she does, she will undoubtedly fail. This program strives to separate those willing to make the effort and those capable of making the effort from those who have deviated so far that they have, even at such a young age, marginalized themselves from society. Such marginalization makes it increasingly difficult for those individuals to reinstate themselves back into society, primarily because society has labeled them as deviants, and refuses to change its generally shallow view of such matters.
This organization is striving to reduce the number of deviants created by such an environment as that found on the west side of Indianapolis. By working with the students and offering help and support to them, they hope that these students will give themselves permission to exceed the rather dismal expectations set by the society around them.
The second girl I mentored while at George Washington was Margarite. Margarite is in the 9th grade and her teachers, and Margarite herself has told me, that she is a very good basketball player. Her grades, however, are too low for her to play on the school team. Margarite, unlike Tiona, does not wish to overcome the stigma that her family has created over her. She seems to feel that as log as she acts tough and holds her ground she will be all right. It is essentially a case of apathy. So long as she lacks the motivation to make something more of herself, she will stay in the mold that society has created for her.
These two girls were produced in similar families in nearly the same neighborhood, yet each of their views of their own potential differs so drastically. While one strives to extrude herself from the reputation of her family name, the other has no intent to work for anything more than what she already has. This raises questions about the idea of nurture versus nature. Why would one child be more inclined to working hard when both grew up in essentially the same situation? Can we extrude from this that a child’s success has to do as much with their genes as with their upbringing? As this cannot be answered based solely on the motivation levels of 2 girls it is impossible for me to conclude on such a subject, but it is excruciatingly curious how this difference manifested itself.
We could finally look at the idea of Strain Theory. Both girls grew in a society that pushed tem to take on certain roles and to act a certain way to coalesce into their society. Margarite was put under some sort of strain, perhaps by family or the neighborhood in which she lives, to become a tough, independent, indifferent and slightly untrusting person. Her indifference has forced her to deviate from social norms and expectations. Tiona was also put under strain by her family; but instead of becoming a deviant from society, she essentially made herself into a deviant from her neighborhood, which consists widely of persons more like Margarite.
The idea that a person can be a deviant by conforming to the norms of greater society is a bit unsettling. By opening this new idea we are forced to rethink the idea of a deviant as someone who does morally unacceptable things. There seems to not always need to be a crime of taboo in place to appoint someone as a deviant. The idea could be infinitely more delved into, however, I do not feel that I have to needed information to proceed farther than I already have on the topic.
Overall, I found that those willing to work beyond their social perimeters are few and far between, but that finding those few and helping them to see their potential is infinitely rewarding. The experience was humbling as well, reminding myself that not all receive the fighting chance they deserve; that these kids need every boost up that is available, and we are the one who need to make those opportunities recognizable for them. We have to make the effort as much as they do if society wants to pull those who have deviated back into the norms of society.
Word Count: 1,119