Thursday, August 18, 2011 7:59 AM
-By Mary Williams Drouillard, NETC Group Leader, MI
Students and service-learning are a perfect fit. Students learn so much through their experiences, not just by seeing something new, but also by touching, hearing, smelling, tasting and sifting those new experiences through the lens of their personal values and their faith. Oakland Christian School takes groups of students to Beijing, China every other year. China is so “out of the box;” everything is different than our life in America. Suddenly, we’re the foreigners! People stare. People stop. People want us to get in their pictures. Chinese language is swirled together with traffic sounds, billboards in writing so foreign we can’t even distinguish individual letters and a pedestrian life we aren’t accustomed to in the Motor City. Our common language is smiles and kindness. Right away, students see that people who are “other” are really not so different than us.
Click "Read More" below to continue reading about the group's experiences in Beijing China, see photos and watch their video...
By Neil E. Traveler on Thursday, August 18, 2011 7:59 AM
Categories:Service Learning, China