Reflections of a Historian on Teaching a Service-Learning Course About Poverty and Homelessness in America

In this essay, the author describes how developing and teaching a service-learning course both broadened his appreciation for historical analysis and at the same time, revealed the limitations of history as a way of understanding a contemporary issue. In addition, the author reflects on how service-learning, as practiced in his course, has affected students and how it has affected him as an educator. A description of why and how the author teaches a course on poverty and homelessness provides the necessary background for these reflections.