As I sit here after reading the posts of this class about the organizations that you are working at and the mission of these places as well as your own experiences and thoughts being there, I am humbled and grateful. Humbled that there are so many who are willing to dedicate their lives to serve those who are down on their luck, or disenfranchised in some way, or just in need of a role model. And very grateful that there are people out there like you guys willing to put in the time to help. You are an amazing group and despite this being an assignment, many of you mentioned that you were glad that you could contribute to the greater good in the ways that you did and were looking forward to going back again to do more, of which I am so glad!
During these tough times for our country, I think President Obama put it best as written in the Boston Globe on Jan 20, 2009:
"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve," Obama said, quoting the slain civil rights leader as he rolled Laguna blue paint on the walls of Sasha Bruce House.
While his administration intends to work hard to help Americans in need, Obama said, "Don't underestimate the power for people to pull together and to accomplish amazing things."
"These young people have huge potential that right now is not being tapped, and given the crisis that we're in and the hardships that so many people are going through, we can't allow any idle hands," he added. "Everybody's got to be involved. Everybody's going to have to pitch in, and I think the American people are ready for that."
So, it's official: you are great because you serve. Obama said it himself. For more examples of great blogs, please check out the blogs of Jackie B, Nataliya G, Stacey O, and Liz Y.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Welcome to our English 98 Service Learning Blog
One of the most significant things we humans can experience is the opportunity to do something for someone else. In Jonathan Field's blog "Awake at the Wheel," he summarizes it this way:
"“If you want to feel better,” they say, “you’ve got to give yourself away.” And, we seem to all publicly buy into that. But, while our minds say, “cool,” our actions all too often say, “my ass!” Which is a shame, because there’s now strong published research to support the notion that serving others, especially those less fortunate than us, really does go beyond helping others.
In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt reported the surprising results of an experiment designed to explore the impact of four different types of experiences on longer-term happiness. Haidt told 350 students to engage in four activities, one self-indulgent pleasure, eating ice-cream, and three gratifications-attending a new lecture, doing something out of kindness for a friend, and calling or visiting someone to tell them how grateful they were for that persons’ friendship.
The results were quite surprising, service cultivates the most happiness.
Eating the ice-cream was enjoyable (duh), but the pleasure was fleeting. Attending the lecture ranked as the least enjoyable, unless you were someone with what acclaimed positive psychology visionary, Professor Martin Seligman calls a “signature-Strength” for curiosity and learning. But, the bigger news was that the participants experienced more powerful and longer-lasting boosts to their states-of-mind from the acts of kindness than the acts of self-indulgence. In fact, many people even carried their improved moods into the next day.
Maybe that helps explain the blissed-out expressions on the faces of so many Buddhist monks, whose essential teaching is that of compassion and kindness."
In other words, doing acts of service and kindness leads to happiness that lasts. Pretty cool, huh? We want to provide a voice for that kind of happiness so voila! Here is our collective experience on serving others and its effects. Enjoy!
"“If you want to feel better,” they say, “you’ve got to give yourself away.” And, we seem to all publicly buy into that. But, while our minds say, “cool,” our actions all too often say, “my ass!” Which is a shame, because there’s now strong published research to support the notion that serving others, especially those less fortunate than us, really does go beyond helping others.
In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt reported the surprising results of an experiment designed to explore the impact of four different types of experiences on longer-term happiness. Haidt told 350 students to engage in four activities, one self-indulgent pleasure, eating ice-cream, and three gratifications-attending a new lecture, doing something out of kindness for a friend, and calling or visiting someone to tell them how grateful they were for that persons’ friendship.
The results were quite surprising, service cultivates the most happiness.
Eating the ice-cream was enjoyable (duh), but the pleasure was fleeting. Attending the lecture ranked as the least enjoyable, unless you were someone with what acclaimed positive psychology visionary, Professor Martin Seligman calls a “signature-Strength” for curiosity and learning. But, the bigger news was that the participants experienced more powerful and longer-lasting boosts to their states-of-mind from the acts of kindness than the acts of self-indulgence. In fact, many people even carried their improved moods into the next day.
Maybe that helps explain the blissed-out expressions on the faces of so many Buddhist monks, whose essential teaching is that of compassion and kindness."
In other words, doing acts of service and kindness leads to happiness that lasts. Pretty cool, huh? We want to provide a voice for that kind of happiness so voila! Here is our collective experience on serving others and its effects. Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
