Much learning takes place informally and incidentally, beyond explicit teaching or in the classroom, in casual contacts with faculty and staff, peers, campus life, active social and community involvement, and unplanned but fertile and complex situations.

CSL students traveled to/from Clara Barton each of the nine weeks by carpool. Victoria and I will have no way of ever knowing just how much incidental learning took place among the students in these carpools, not only about English 101/ Sociology 101 but other life skills as well. However I am aware, at least anecdotally, that students used this travel time to talk about what was going on their academic and personal lives. On the other hand, their field notes revealed instances of learning for which we had not planned.

Kristin expressed surprise at having learned something about herself:

I learned so much about myself by doing this [community service at Clara Barton]. I said in my first field notes that I wasn't a 'kid person' but now I feel like I [could] work with kids anytime. I think they used to intimidate me because I really couldn't relate to them. I have a brother but he's eleven years my senior so I didn't grow up with children around. This [community service] was so great because I enjoyed the opportunity to give help or being the one to answer the question.

Will learned about the rigors of teaching:

I feel I learned so much from this community service experience. Before I ever worked at Clara Barton, I thought that being an elementary teacher would be a very easy job to do what I presumed to be short hours and time off in the summer. However, I know have a better understanding of what it take to be a teacher, and through that understanding I have found that I have no desire to become one. In fact, after my experience at Clara Barton, I believe that being a teacher is one of the hardest jobs to handle.

Wayne connected these rigors with the overall goals of education:

I've learned a lot about the need for equal education in order for a kid to have [an] equal opportunity in this country. The Standards of Learning provide guidelines and goals for schools to follow so that kids can receive a more equal education. Through my experience I've also learned a lot about what teachers have to put up with. I hadn't thought that teaching little kids would be so rough.

They also learned from their students. Tara put it this way:

I have grown from what I have learned from the kids. The kids taught me to like everyone no matter their race or diversity. In my opinion, my point of view towards education has changed from the beginning of the year. At first I thought the way the school was run was weird. Now that I know how things are run, I understand the schooling at Clara Barton a little bit better.

And Will did his own reality check:

Working at Clara Barton helped me gain more experience in dealing with children and working with other adults. I also feel that I learned about what it takes to work in the real world.