There are all types of critics: food, movie, fashion, music, etc. Criticism allows us to looks into both sides of the argument, to see a side that we did not get to see before, and to better inform ourselves about the issue so that we do not come off as ignorant. It would be difficult for someone to see a different point of view because they have held on to their opinions for so long that they refuse to consider anything that goes against their beliefs. As someone who volunteers a lot, I have learned a plethora of things through the works of community service. Volunteerism is the act of using one’s time and talents for charitable, educational and other activities, mainly in the community. It can be found in many places: school, churches, community, and through organizations. There are positive and negative aspects when doing community service. Through community service, children and teenagers can learn to see beyond themselves and recognize the role that they play in the community and in their lives. Criticisms on volunteering makes us rethink about our service and the reasons why we do it; it gives use a new perspective on whether we are doing it for all the right reasons that deep down we may be doing it ourselves after all.
In Peter Block’s “From Leadership to Citizenship,” he chastises the importance of leadership in today’s society. He references Laurens Van der Post’s comment that we as a community have put so much effort into praising leaders as if they are gods that we have also created accommodations for the devil. We have paid homage to leaders when in fact they are just regular people like the rest of us. If we continue to put all of our effort into admiring leadership it “becomes the obstacle to authentic change or transformation. If we believe that leadership is the essential ingredient to high performance, then it has serious consequences about how we think about our institutions and what will improve or change them” (Block, 2). This may seems slightly harsh and aggressive, but people only see one side of leadership, that we need more leaders and that we need to start reaching out to the youth now. This is absolutely not true because we will then have too many leaders if we only focus on organizations that helps build leaders and that we will have had spent most of our time and effort into creating leaders that we should have accomplished something much more relevant. We have more concerns to worry about than forming leaders out of people. We do not need leaders; we need people to take initiative for themselves and not depend on other people’s directions and guidance. We waste all of our time on making leaders out of people when they do not have any interest at all on becoming a leader. Leaders are born, not made.
From Block’s standpoint, I will not look at the leadership quality when volunteering, for it is not about me, it is about the person or organization that I am helping. There is so much emphasis on the leadership aspect of it that people forget the main reason they are volunteering in the first place. Students, for instance, for the most part put their effort into volunteering so that they can put in their resume that will later help them look good for colleges and employers who look for students with community service experience. This makes it difficult to distinguish whether people do it because they want to help people or people do it because they want to get something out of it, something as selfish as looking good for colleges and employers.
Are we really helping people when we go abroad to perform acts of service just because we think that it will benefit them? Based on Illich’s “To Hell With Good Intentions,” “you will not help anybody by your good intentions” that just because you think that you are helping someone does not mean that you actually are. You do not know if you are an inconvenience to them or a nuisance. Some people do not want to be helped despite their situation. Others may consider his statement vile and unsympathetic but we should consider his point of view. Are you helping fix the problem when you volunteer? Reflecting about the service makes one ponder whether they are leaving really leaving an impact or not. Did you help them with their situation or did you teach them how to handle their situation so that if the problem arises in the future they can help themselves?
Criticizing volunteerism focuses on the “why’s” and the “what’s.” Why are you there volunteering in the first place? Why do you want to help? Is it because you are doing it for some intrinsic reason or are you doing it because you actually want to help the less fortunate? In Adam Davis’s “What We Don’t Talk About When We Don’t Talk About Service,” he claims that all acts of service are considered selfish. We volunteer to help others all the while deep down we are also helping ourselves. We may not think about it, but subconsciously, we are doing it to benefit ourselves for the long run, if not short term. Helping others makes us feel like we are good people because we are utilizing our free time to assist those who are in need. He states that we do community service because it relieves us the shame that we are not living our lives modestly. It is in our human nature to be selfish; we do things because we are hoping to get something back in return. We see other people serving and that makes us feel bad because we are not helping others. This makes us want to do something good whether it is something as small as picking up trash off the ground to justify the fact that we are not good people because we do things for ourselves. Before volunteering, I try to consider whether there is a hidden motive behind my acts and ponder whether my reasons for volunteering are selfish or not. This reflection will help me be open minded about the service and those I am serving and will give me the motivation to help those in need.
In Baldwin’s “Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story,” she says, “a person is born as a blank page and leaves life as a full book.” I completely agree with this in that a person learns a lot when he or she performs community service. As you volunteer through multiple organizations, you learn a little thing about yourself and about the community. In Coles’s “The Call of Service,” he states that “students are more likely to express their lofty political and social impulses and practical desires to change the world through community service.” I completely agree with this statement because as a student I think that the first step into changing the world is to volunteer in the community. Through community service, one will learn things about the world that cannot be learned anywhere else. One will realize the importance of helping others and how this can affect other people as well, like the Domino Effect. One good deed leads to another.
In Kretzmann’s “Assets‐based community development,” he says that people should not focus on what the community needs but on their abilities. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” If people focus on the community’s problems, then they will not be able to help themselves; but if we teach them how to solve their own problems, then they can help themselves for the rest of their lives.
In McKnight and Block’s “The Abundant Community,” they focus on the opportunities that the community provides for its people. The citizens of a community have the gifts, structures, capacities to provide much of what we require in our lives, which are facilities, friendship, and products. If people stay optimistic and seek everything a community can provide, then people can see the result that of which a more safe and respectful community. In Jenny Morgan’s “Volunteer Tourism,” she focuses not on the needs of a community but on the volunteer. Often times, the volunteer can get too caught up with the idea that they are learning things to benefit themselves, and that altruism exists when doing community service. This makes the service seem like a selfish act.
Works Cited:
Morgan, Jenny. "Volunteer Tourism." VolunTourism. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.voluntourism.org/news-studyandresearch62.htm>.
McKnight, John, and Peter Block. "Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods." The Abundant
Community. San Francisco: Berett-Koehler, 2010. 115-22. Print.
Block, Peter. Community: The Structure of Belonging. San Francisco: Berret-
Koehler Publishers, 2008. Print.
Illich, Ivan. "To hell with good intentions." An Address to the Conference on InterAmerican Student Projects (CIASP) in Cuernavaca, Mexico, on April. Vol. 20. 1968.
Davis, Adams. “What We Don’t Talk about When We Don’t Talk about Service.” The Civically Engaged Reader: A Diverse Collection of Short Provocative Readings on Civic Activity. Ed. Davis, Adams & Elizabeth Lynn, Chicago:Great Books Foundation, 2006. 148-154. Print.
Baldwin, Christina. Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story. Novato: New World Library, 2007. Print.
Kretzmann, John, and John P. McKnight. "Assets‐based community development." National Civic Review 85.4 (1996): 23-29.
Coles, Robert. The Call of Service. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994. Print.