Reflective Blog #3

I recently finished my service learning time at ANSER. And I took some rather powerful memories from that place.

As I looked around the halls of the school, I noticed that there is a vivid atmosphere of excitement in the air. It really didn't matter whether there was an auction going on or whether it was Picture Day; I never saw a sad face at ANSER. Even the parents who were constantly coming in and out of the building showed no trace of frustration--they showed delight and vigor whenever they walked through the door. I don't exactly know what's contributing to their collective happiness, but it's become clear that ANSER is a wonderful place for these children, and that their parents not only feel comfortable sending their kids there, but they are more or less satisfied with their children's education.

I don't know if I already said this, but the kids are treated more like adults at ANSER. If nothing else, they certainly aren't being talked down to, in my opinion. For example, on my first day, I sat in one boy's usual seat, and he just stood there looking at me, not telling me that I was sitting in his chair. One of the supervisors picked up on this and asked the boy if I knew that I was in his seat. When he said no, she advised him to tell me, because that would be the courteous thing to do. Moreover, the supervisors are there to make sure the kids are always on-task. There are a few troublemakers every once in a while, but my point is that these kids are learning personal responsibility and time management. Furthermore, the students are learning how to respect their peers' time, which I think has been lost in our education system lately.

In the final analysis, I've come to the conclusion that the current state of the American education system is lacking in some of the most fundamental areas of personal character building. I fear that we are coddling our children too much. We aren't teaching them personal responsibility as much as we should. We aren't instilling that sense of belonging in our educational system. Instead, our children are forced to maintain a minimum standard of competence in their education, but that's not enough. The system at ANSER instills its students with moral and ethical values that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives, and that is the beauty of ANSER Charter School. I was very honored to be a part of this project, and I hope that other service-learning volunteers choose ANSER in the future.