Service Learning: Inclusion and Exclusion

Throughout my service learning experience so far, we've encountered many issues in terms of finding the right activities that fit for everybody. While we make many efforts to include every person in our activities, some still feel excluded because of their age or ability.

For instance, in the physical therapy room, the children range from the age of 5 to the age of 20. They all have different disabilities as well. When we play charades, for example, one student just did not have the ability to learn new games. The moment we have him the gesture he was supposed to act out, he would say it out loud right away, ruining the game. Or in the beginning of the year, when we played "duck, duck, goose", only one kid could play. One of the students who couldn't run as fast because of her walking disabilities did not want to participate.

What makes it more difficult in our efforts at including everyone is the way the room is set up. While one half of the room is dedicated to younger children who need to practice walking, the other side is dedicated to students who are there supposedly for exercise on the exercise equipment. We can only play with the exercising students. Today, however, the physical therapists weren't in the room for a long period of time and a bunch of volunteers came in to play. It was really interesting to see what ended up happening when we brought out the game of Bingo. The volunteers grabbed the students who couldn't walk yet and brought them over to play with us at the game of bingo. They were finally allowed to play with us but towards the end of the game, they were forced to practice walking again. But because they had sat down for so long and had been held and nurtured by the volunteers, the little girl did not want to practice walking anymore. It was as if all the progress that the physical therapists had worked hard to do was now being reversed in our efforts to include them in our games. Meanwhile, I could tell that one of our students, Tuan Anh, played Bingo not because they enjoyed it but because they just wanted to make US feel better about bringing in games. Tuan Anh, one of the older kids of the group, was the active agent in making us feel included, not the other way around.

Thus, these are games we are trying to work out. Because the students come from such a different range of backgrounds, its hard to truly make everyone feel included. But I guess its a process. And I guess its also a matter of realizing that the students are also trying to make us feel welcome as well.