Service-learning, a teaching method wherein students learn by combining academic concepts with community service, has received much attention as a means to empower youth and equip them with important skills that are conducive to both community engagement and self-esteem. However, it also functions as a mediator between gender issues and educational practice, an important divide that has enormous implications for academics and educators alike. Youth development is not an inherently unified field; young people present a multiplicity of identities that cannot easily be addressed by a totalizing methodology. Theories of gender and sexuality remind us that reforms for girls in public schools must not take an essentialist stance that purports to speak for all girls and women, given that there is no easy reform for a category so unable as “woman.” The key question becomes how to keep this principle in mind in practice. Curricula that are designed to serve the “needs” of “women” make the mistake of purporting that there is a delineated population called “women” that has specific issues to be dealt with. Though there is no doubt that girls in public schools need attention, especially when one contends with the masculinist tendencies of the American schooling system, there is such a wide array of voices within the category of “woman” that some are silenced for the sake of others. Service learning combats this by allowing young people to examine the structures of power that occupy their lives while encouraging personal achievement and growth alongside fellow classmates.

Which of the following can be inferred from the information provided in the passage ?

a) The assumption that women have definitive similarities is wrong

b) The most effective way to address gender disparity is to promote a focus on community based learning

c) A totalizing method has no discernible benefits

d) Service-learning emphasizes the need for a more inclusive approach, which addresses issues taking into consideration age, race and religious backgrounds.

e) An essentialist approach to addressing issues is not without its merits