Asset Based Development in Action

I have always been somewhat skeptical of the Assets Based development scheme, but I think I caught a glimpse of how it's supposed to work. On Monday, I was fulfilling my obligations to Gordon in Lynn by trying to teach ESL at the Ford school. The time came for me to work with a small group of students, two of whom spoke no English at all. While I was struggling to explain the basics of the English language, in English, to non-English speakers, a student in the group who was more proficient in English began to teach the other non-English speaker some basic vocabulary. I quit babbling and let him take over. He proceeded to explain, in Spanish and English, the day's lesson, referring to me occasionally for clarification. By the end of the day, I had done nothing and two people had learned some rudimentary English.

There are many conclusions that can be drawn from this anecdote. The first is about the importance of training teachers. I do not know how to effectively teach ESL, but am somehow still trying to teach it. More to the point, however, the story illustrates how Assets Based development is supposed to work---a member from the community doing things better than us outsiders, referring to us only when necessary, and eventually leaving us behind to sit at Gordon and look for new cities to spread our service learning to.

So what does this mean practically? Should we leave ESL to the Spanish speakers? What about other problems such as housing or pollution?