Interview with Rose McGee, Parent Connections Manager, Achieve! Minneapolis
25th anniversary interview
As a professional storyteller, poet, and playwright, Rose McGee has
performed in schools, colleges, and communities across the country. She
exercises her eclectic background by incorporating service-learning and
the arts into everyday living. Her poem, “Sleep with a Virgin: A
Perspective on AIDS” was commissioned by NYLC to be converted into a
play, which premiered at the 2003 Annual National Service-Learning
Conference. Videotaped excerpts are used nationally by NYLC’s Y-RISE
Project for youth to teach other youth about HIV/AIDS.
The following is an excerpt from her interview with NYLC.
What are some of the opportunities for service-learning in the urban enviornment?
There are so many curriculum projects that are already designed to help understand the environment and social justice issues better. We have an opportunity to bring these types of projects to the classrooms, to after-school programs, and wherever else learning takes place, but in a way that students can identify with.
Get students engaged in a conversation about why it is that you want to get your community engaged in understanding what voting is. This is a political year; do students know what’s going on? Many of them don’t.
We need to teach subjects in a way that students can start taking ownership. We had a project where we brought in U.S. Congressman Keith Ellison while he was still running for candidacy. He talked with our students about the importance of being engaged in the political process. Before his visit, none of the students had planned on voting. But after they learned how the upcoming elections were impacting them, they became excited about encouraging people in the community to bone-up and get a ride, so they could vote.
It’s simple stuff, but it’s not being done to the extent that it could be. And if the light switch isn’t coming on for teachers to teach that way, they don’t understand that some of the stuff they already do is service-learning, and they don’t understand some of the stuff they could be doing to make their classes even more exciting is service-learning.
