Copyright © 1995 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from ASCD.
Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
It is with pleasure that I introduce this timely publication on service learning that will help educators in their efforts to reform schools and improve education. As a response to our national need to reconnect children, families, and schools, service learning can improve learning and instill an ethic of service and citizenship in our youth. Service learning also helps us in our efforts to achieve the National Education Goals. Advocates of service learning and proponents of school reform are natural allies who share an understanding about what is important to the development of a strong education. Though the two movements developed independently, their goals have converged; and they may now join forces in a common effort to improve education.
People in both movements agree that all children learn more and can provide greater service to society if we challenge them to do more, have higher expectations for them, and hold them to higher learning standards with enriched course content. Both groups know that we can significantly improve students' education through active learning of subject matter in real-life settings. Both groups strive to build on student strengths and interests for learning in the classroom and for service in the community, and they work to make full use of the community and caring adults as learning resources.
All these attributes play an important role in helping us reach the National Education Goals. First, service learning provides an education in good citizenship. By engaging youth in learning activities designed to meet real community needs, we can help students develop an ethic of service, along with the character and habits of community participation needed to ensure that they are prepared for responsible citizenship.
Second, by involving students in hands-on learning, problem solving, and applications of academic knowledge in real settings, service learning can increase students' academic achievement in challenging subjects. When we enrich students' experiences with service activities that enable them to make valued contributions to the community, we can also create a sense of engagement that enhances a student's motivation to complete school.
This sense of engagement and responsibility will continue after formal learning has ended, helping to create a responsible and skilled work force that can participate successfully in a world-class economy and in the democratic life of our nation. When service learning brings youth and adults together in collaborative teams working to solve real problems, students gain personal insight into the knowledge and skills needed to achieve concrete results in the community. For the majority of students who do not enter college directly after high school, service learning also provides valuable career exploration and strategies for entering the work force. And for students too young to be salaried employees, service learning provides a valuable early structured work experience.
Third, service learning contributes to the development of safe schools. By engaging young people in constructive and rewarding in-school and after-school activities, service learning helps keep children involved, productive, and off the street, so they are away from harm's way. And it allows young people and adults to work together to address important community problems, thereby helping to mend the growing sense of disconnection that so many young people feel today. Training students in peer mediation and conflict resolution can also make a significant contribution to our efforts to achieve a disciplined learning environment.
In the United States, we have a pressing need to reconnect our families with their schools, and our schools with their communities. We must reinvent a sense of community if we want our schools to achieve their full potential, bringing together adults, children, teachers, and other members of the community in an effort to improve student learning, responsibility, and citizenship. We know that schools do well when they make new connections—when they involve the business community, the arts and science communities, the university community, and other social services in a common effort to raise standards. Service-learning projects provide the structure needed to engage parents and other adults in our children's education.
Service learning is effective when it is structured to respond to both the needs of the community and the learning needs of students. The service experience must be integrated into the academic program by knowledgeable teachers working with a well-designed curriculum. This book on service learning provides the nation's teaching force with access to information for the continued improvement of the professional skills and knowledge needed to instruct and prepare students to be knowledgeable and productive citizens.
Director, Community Service Learning Center, Springfield, Massachusetts
Service learning is a powerful educational experience where interest collides with information, values are formed, and action emerges. The learning part has two dimensions: an inner dimension; learning about yourself, your motivation, your values, and an outer dimension; learning about the world, its ways and the underlying cause of the problems that service work addresses (Sawyer 1991).
Community service learning has captured the imagination and gained the support of thousands of teachers across the United States. It began as a way to provide young people with a sense of civic and social responsibility and support them in their growth and development. It has mushroomed into a process and methodology that helps connect young people to their communities and inspires teachers to bring school-reform initiatives to life. As a result, teachers are dramatically changing the dynamic of learning—from static to participatory—by tapping the energy and talent of youth.
The notion of integrating service experiences into curriculum and connecting schools with agencies and neighborhoods has spread from teachers to schools, to community agencies, and to entire communities. Service-learning experiences connect students to their communities, enrich students' learning, and help them develop personally, socially and academically. People in these communities believe that in performing service, youth learn to understand the meaning of community beyond self and develop a sense of responsibility and respect for others.
To illustrate both the promise and the practice of service learning, this book focuses on the stories and examples of practitioners. Rather than describing the research and practice theoretically, we asked people from many different schools and locations to reflect on and share their service-learning stories to illustrate how they tap service learning to bring life to learning. This format resists being a tightly knit volume—instead, it captures the rich tapestry of service learning through the experiences described by administrators, teachers, university faculty, and students.
A tradition of community service goes back to early U.S. history. In 1830, Alexis de Tocqueville first recorded this unique phenomenon in Democracy in America. As he observed the civic and social support citizens gave to their young nation, he called these acts "habits of the heart" (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, and Tipton 1986, Preface, p. vii). He saw these "habits" as a counterpoint to the individualism represented in the society and as a way to unify the political community and "thus ultimately support the maintenance of free institutions." The term "habits of the heart" has been revived in the past decade to help refocus our thinking and to remind us that a fundamental and natural part of democracy is based on people helping and caring for one another. Building on this theme, Langton and Miller (1988) observe that the "principle of commitment to others is the counterpoint of America's emphasis on individualism, and both constitute the basic underpinnings of our society" (p. 25).
Historically, community service has been part of the activities of families, churches, community organizations such as the Girl and Boy Scouts, and school groups including Key Clubs and National Honor Societies.
In the early 1980s, many educational and political leaders began to advocate for increased involvement of youth in community service activities, citing the need for youth not only to understand their rights as individuals but their responsibilities toward each other (Neal 1986). In addition, advocates saw the need in education to break the isolation, the emphasis on self, and the lack of connections between youth and their communities (Boyer 1987a). David Hornbeck (1989) blamed the crisis in our society and in education not on lower math and science scores, but on the fact that we care too little for one another and too much for ourselves. These leaders have begun to view community service as a vehicle for youth development, the advancement of school reform, and, ultimately, community renewal.
In addition to the traditional emphasis on community service, service learning has other roots, as follows.
Service is consciously transformed into service learning. The transition from traditional community service to service learning occurs "when there is a deliberate connection made between service and learning opportunities which are then accompanied by conscious and thoughtfully designed occasions for reflecting on the service experience" (Alliance for Service Learning in Education Reform 1993; see "Standards of Quality for School-Based Service Learning," by the Alliance, in the "Resources" section of this book). The added dimension of learning provides depth to young people's experiences, helps support their social and personal development, and provides integrated curriculum and instruction to support school reform experiences.
Service learning has roots in citizenship education. One important function of schools is to prepare students to become contributing citizens to their classroom, school or community. Service learning is a valuable strategy to achieve this goal because
Service learning has roots in experiential education. The educational philosophy of John Dewey, Ralph Tyler, and Hilda Taba stressed the importance of integrating learning experiences into the curriculum to provide a framework for learning. These educators, as well as Piaget, Coleman, and Kolb, have long urged teachers to teach through experiences. Dewey (cited in Davis, Maher, and Noddings 1990) maintained: "The mind is not individual but social, and learning is a by-product of social activities." Dewey believed that all curriculum must be generated out of social situations based on organized principles but founded on the twin pillars of the capacity of the child and the demands of the environment.
Tyler (1949) maintained that learning occurs "through the active behavior of the student; it is what he does that he learns, not what the teacher does" (p. 63).
Taba (1962) provided an in-depth approach to the process of curriculum development. Her analysis and descriptions of content organization and design provide concrete ways to produce curriculum that will actively engage students in learning. Some service-learning practitioners are guided by her process, through which teachers develop the objectives of education, integrate learning experiences, and develop teaching-learning units. She urged educators to use the concerns of the learners to increase motivation and connect the essential elements of education.
A contemporary variation on this theme is "constructivist theory," which suggests that "people are not recorders of information, but builders of knowledge structures" (Resnick and Klopfer 1989, p. 4). Constructivism, as identified by Davis and colleagues (cited in Peterson and Knapp 1993), concerns the redefinition of the teacher's role, away from directing and telling toward "guiding student activity, modeling behavior, and providing the examples and counter-examples" (p. 144).
Service learning has roots in youth development. Service has long been viewed as a powerful way to develop character, foster an ethic of service, and nurture a sense of membership in the community. In the agrarian culture of the 19th century, youth were essential for the survival of the family and the society. They naturally developed a sense of personal value and an understanding of their role in the community as they provided for the family, cared for animals, and planted and harvested crops.
As our society moved from agrarian to urban, the journey from youth to adulthood has not developed appropriate ways for youth to gain a sense of purpose and become connected to their communities. As Harold Howe states, "We have no use in our economic system for young people between the ages of twelve and eighteen, and precious little use in our community affairs. So we suggest you sit quietly, behave yourselves, and study hard in the schools we provide as a holding pen until we are ready to accept you into the adult world" (Howe, quoted in Boyer 1987b, p. 7).
Many schools, in an attempt to address Howe's concern with self-esteem curriculum, direct students to talk about self-esteem and do fabricated activities. Service-learning advocates suggest, however, that opportunities to make real contributions to their school and community will better nurture the self-esteem of young people and give them a positive sense of self.
Conrad and Hedin (1989), based on 20 years of teaching community service in the classroom and a review of research in the field, hypothesized that well-designed community service programs would have a positive effect on youth in the following areas:
Conrad and Hedin (1989) recognize that service learning and its outcomes are difficult to evaluate because service learning is not a "definable activity like taking notes at a lecture" (p. 20). Students participate in many types of activities and experience them in different ways. Further, it is difficult to measure growth and development; many different factors, including the effect of the service experience, can come into play. Fortunately, researchers are attempting to quantify the effect of service learning on youth development.
For example, in a case study conducted on the integration of community service learning into the curriculum of a middle school in Springfield, Massachusetts, teachers and students reported that the service experiences added to the students' academic, social, and personal development (Kinsley 1992). The learning situations included involvement in active and cooperative learning, problem solving, and multicultural experiences. As a result, Kinsley reported, middle school students began to see their classroom and school as a community and made connections to the larger community, as well. Their service-learning activities included the following:
Not only did students' experiences enhance their understanding of basic skills and help them apply content information, but the different vehicles helped them understand the meaning of community, the benefits of reaching out and sharing with others, and the concept of giving their time without thought of reward.
Teachers observed that as students learned more about the community, they gained a stronger sense of themselves. In addition, the service experiences helped students break down stereotypes and barriers as they interacted with elderly people, various ethnic and racial groups, and adults from the various service sites. Manners and respect increased as the students successfully participated in their service activities (Kinsley 1992).
A 1993 study in the Springfield Public Schools suggested that service learning is a powerful motivator for learning. Two control groups were surveyed to determine the effect of community service learning on learning. Of the students surveyed, 90.5 percent responded that they enjoyed learning their topic when community service learning was part of their work, in contrast to 67.2 percent of the group not participating in service learning.
Educators and citizens alike recognize that our youth need support. We often hear the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." Service learning provides a way to make connections with the "village" and provide youth with the support they need as they discover who they are and how they can become part of their communities.
Service learning has roots in school reform. Seymour Sarason, in The Predictable Failure of School Reform (1991), states that true school reform cannot be accomplished without a change in the traditional authoritarian classroom. Although this change is difficult, many communities are making significant efforts to restructure and improve school programs.
These efforts often mirror the community service-learning process:
As educators work toward school reform, they are discovering that multiple interventions are essential for significant school change: collaborative strategies, the development of new and old basic skills, new roles for students, integrated curriculum, authentic assessment, infusion of technology, new linkages with the community, and a restructuring of time. Service learning, by its very nature, has proven to be a powerful connector for these frequently disparate interventions. And service learning provides a vehicle to complement and implement reform initiatives such as cooperative learning, active learning, thematic units, and authentic learning.
Although service learning is not the sole answer for school restructuring, many teachers, students, and administrators are realizing its value in revitalizing learning, regenerating the school and community, and providing a powerful way for our young people to develop self- esteem and social responsibility. Service learning also provides a way for teachers to give meaning to learning while motivating students and for the school as a whole to unify its often-fragmented school reform efforts.
The information in this book illustrates the many ways in which educators, students, and community members are bringing together the various aspects of school reform. Practitioners from many schools and communities share thoughtful service-learning programs that alter the way teachers teach, the way the school day operates, the ways young people learn and grow in the context of their schooling, the way young people can connect to and help build their community, and the way school is viewed in the community.
Alliance for Service Learning in Education Reform. (1993). Standards of Quality and Excellence for School-Based Service Learning. Washington, D.C.: Council of Chief State School Officers.
Bellah, R.N., R. Madsen, W.M. Sullivan, A. Swidler, and S.M. Tipton. (1986). Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. New York: Harper & Row.
Boyer, E. (1987a). "Foreword." In Student Service, edited by C. Harrison. Princeton: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Boyer, E.L. (October 1987b). "Service Linking School to Life." Community Education Journal, p. 7.
Conrad, D., and D. Hedin. (December 1989). High School Community Service: A Review of Research and Programs. Washington, D.C.: National Center on Effective Secondary Schools, U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educatonal Research and Improvement; and Madison: Wisconsin Center for Education Research, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Hornbeck, D. (November 13, 1989). Speech presented at the Growing Hope Conference, National Youth Leadership Council, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Kinsley, C. (1992). "A Case Study: The Integration of Community Service Learning into the Curriculum by an Interdisciplinary Team of Teachers at an Urban Middle School." Doctoral diss., University of Massachusetts.
Langton, S., and F. Miller. (Spring 1988). "Youth Community Service." Equity & Choice 4, 3: 25–33.
Neal, R. (1986). Speech presented at Youth Service Recognition Day, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, Massachusetts.
Peterson, P.L., and N.F. Knapp. (1993). "Inventing and Reinventing Ideas: "Constructivist Teaching and Learning in Mathematics." In Challenges and Achievements of American Education, ASCD 1993 Yearbook, edited by G. Cawelti. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD.
Resnick, L.B., and C.E. Klopfer. (1989). Toward the Thinking Curriculum: Current Cognitive Research. Alexandria, Va.: ASCD.
Sarason, S. (1990). The Predictable Failure of School Reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sawyer, D. (October 1991). Speech presented at the Wingspread Conference, Racine, Wisconsin.
Taba, H. (1962). Curriculum Development Theory and Practice. New York: San Francisco Press.
Tyler, R. (1949). Basic Principles of Curriculum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
School/Family Curriculum Integration Teacher, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, Massachusetts
Just as heirloom quilts grow from tiny scraps of fabric, so several opportunities for community service learning grew from a patchwork of stories read in my combined 1st and 2nd grade classroom.
Learning experiences in our multicultural urban classroom evolved through thematic studies. Children's literature lies at the heart of these experiences and was a primary means through which the children made connections to the world outside. As part of our studies, each student's family was invited into the classroom to share their special talents. The family visits became a form of community service to our classroom.
The first conversation about quilts in our classroom resulted from my reading The Patchwork Quilt, by Valerie Flournoy (1985), to the class. The book was a logical choice for adding a warm touch to our study of families and communities. It tells of a girl and her family who work together to complete a quilt for their grandmother after she is taken ill and is unable to complete it by herself.
When I planned to read the story to the children, I had not anticipated the enthusiastic personal connections that they would make to the story. As I read, the children noticed the quilts in the story and said, "That's the quilt I have!" and "That's a quilt like mine!" The children also remarked that their grandmothers had pincushions like the one in the story. The quilt stuffing, they thought, would make the quilt soft and comfortable.
The reaction to the first story was so positive that we sought out other stories about quilts and began reading and exploring them together. As we read, we discovered ways in which quilt stories teach lessons about how people work together and serve each other in their families and communities.
In Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt, by Lisa Ernst (1983), a group of men compete against a group of women to win a blue ribbon in the quilting contest at the county fair. In the end, when both quilts are nearly ruined, everyone learns the value of working together. As we read this book, we noted the quilt patterns that form the borders of the pages and talked about how the name of each of each pattern fit the design. But more important, we noted the value of cooperation among members of a community.
We also read The Quilt Story, by Tony Johnston (1985), and discussed the way in which quilts preserve the history of a family as they are passed down from one generation to the next. As the days passed, we continued to collect and read other stories about quilts. The children and I brought in quilts from home and hung them in the classroom. The children chose one to sit on during their workshop time. We were completely immersed in quilts and their stories when one student, Hector, announced that his mother would come into school and make a quilt for the class.
On the day that Hector's mother came to sew the quilt, her husband, daughter, son, and grandson all came with her. They helped her carry the sewing machine and fabric. They were all dressed in outfits that she had made for them. As she sewed, the children told the family members about the stories we had read. Hector's dad said that sewing was not just for women. The children agreed, and ran to show him the copy of Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt. Hector's mother spoke mostly Spanish, so one child took up the task of asking her questions for those of us who did not speak Spanish fluently. This child performed a service for the community by helping everyone participate in the conversation. When the quilt was finished, we all sat in a circle and passed it around so everyone could take a firsthand look and thank Hector's mother. One child said, "It's so beautiful, and it's snugly."
Another boy added, "My great-great-grandma gave her daughter a quilt, and her daughter gave her daughter a quilt, and she gave it to me!"
By the time the meeting was over, we had declared that Hector's mother's quilt would be our classroom quilt. From now on, we would pass it around during "peace meetings" in our classroom. During these meetings, we brainstormed solutions to conflicts within our classroom community. The quilt now became a symbol of harmony within the classroom. We also decided that when a new school year came and the 2nd graders moved on to a new classroom, the quilt would remain in our room. It would be passed down to the next class, just as our classmate's quilt had been passed down.
When the new school year arrived, the children moved on—but the quilt stayed. One morning in the beginning of September, Hector came back to the room holding a beautiful, blue crib-sized quilt. The student council was going to sponsor a quilting bee as a community-service-learning project. Children and parents would make quilts for babies with AIDS who were being cared for at a Springfield medical center. Hector and his mother did not wait for the quilting bee, but had carried the lessons from the quilt stories into a service for our entire Springfield community.
Ernst, L.C. (1983). Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt. New York: Lorthrop, Lee and Shepard.
Flournoy, V. (1985). The Patchwork Quilt. New York: Dial Books.
Johnston, T. (1985). The Quilt Story. New York: Putnam.
For more information about peace meetings, see:
Hopkins, S., & J. Winters, eds. (1990). Discover the World: Empowering Children to Value Themselves, Others and the Earth. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.
Other favorite stories featuring quilts:
Hopkins, D. (1993). Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Kinsey-Warnock, N. (1989). The Canadian Geese Quilt. New York: Dell Publishing.
Mitchell, M.K. (1993). Uncle Jed's Barber Shop. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Polacco, P. (1988). The Keeping Quilt. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Ringold, F. (1991). Tar Beach. New York: Scholastic.
The family visits described in this chapter were done in collaboration with Judith Solsken, of the Reading and Writing Program, and Jerri Willett, of the Cultural Diversity and Curriculum Reform Program, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Research on this project was funded during 1991–92 by a grant from the National Council of Teachers of English.
Teacher, Rebecca Johnson School,Springfield, Massachusetts
Teachers and students, already burdened by seemingly overwhelming curriculum demands, are seeing more areas of study moved into the schools as a result of today's societal needs. Community service learning must not be perceived as yet another burden, but as an integrated part of the curriculum, an enhancement to teaching and learning.
I began to weave community service learning into the 6th grade English curriculum in 1991–93, following the recommendations of middle school task forces (Atwell 1987). During this time, inclusion—the integration of special education and bilingual students with regular students—became part of the Springfield Public Schools education program. The following is the story of the development of a community service learning/inclusion partnership, the integration of community service learning into the curriculum, and real writing for real purposes.
Beginning in 1991, my 6th grade Language Arts classes created a partnership with two Developmental Skills classes at Kennedy Middle School. Children in these classes have severe mental and physical disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, hearing and sight loss, seizure disorders, and limited or no verbal skills. During the first year, 6th graders visited the Developmental Skills classes twice a week on a rotating basis. With the help of an Inclusion Grant, the second year's partnership shifted from reverse mainstreaming to an inclusive model, bringing the Developmental Skills students into the 6th graders' classroom. While ten or twelve 6th graders worked with five to six special education students, the rest of the class worked in cooperative poetry groups. Each week the 6th grade partners rotated to work with the special education students.
Sixth graders kept a Community Service Learning Log in which they reflected on their experience. In the second year, 6th graders also partnered with 8th graders as they wrote, directed, and produced two Dr. Seuss plays. The troupe performed their plays at the local Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children as a vehicle for expanding their work with children with disabilities to the larger community.
Was the second year's partnership to be called inclusion or community service learning? Community service learning is exactly what its name implies. It is a service performed to help the community. It isn't new. Consciously adding a learning component to community service is new. An important part of the learning component is reflection, when teachers allow time for students to think back on their service through discussions, writing, drawing, and other media. Then, teachers hope, students integrate the learning into their lives to help them become active and responsible citizens.
Inclusion is more a state of mind or a philosophy than a methodology. It's the belief that all children can learn in some capacity, and that all children, despite disabilities or ethnicity, can be integrated into one environment and learn from each other (Kate Fenton, Inclusion Specialist, Springfield, Mass., personal communication, 1994)
As students began the second year of the partnership and reflected on their experiences, I would often say to them that I was confused. I didn't know if the partnership was community service learning or inclusion. It was a pilot program in which special education students were being included in a regular education classroom. Yet regular education students were providing a service to their school community through the partnership. By combining the two processes, each reinforced the other. Inclusion activities provided the vehicle for student interaction, and the community-service-learning process called for students' conscious reflection on their experiences working together.
Did this partnership interfere with the English curriculum? Not at all. Based on the theory of writing process, the curriculum requires students to learn the techniques and strategies of a writing workshop. Writing can be integrated through literature or writing units.
When my students began the partnership with the Developmental Skills classes, the experience gave them a basis for real writing for real purposes. They had a ready-made topic: their feelings and learning experiences resulting from their work with the students in the Developmental Skills classes.
Free writing was a common reflective activity. After a class discussion, they would free-write for 10–15 minutes, using these questions as guides: What did you do? How did you feel? and What did you learn? As a culminating activity, they prepared a report for the Exceptional People's Awareness Day organized by Kennedy Middle School's Special Education Department. In preparing this report, they followed the "writing workshop" steps, as follows:
After a class discussion (prewriting), the students decided they wanted to present their report as a picture book (prewriting). They outlined and organized the sequence of the picture book and chose what page they wanted to work on (prewriting). They wrote about the beginning of the program. The middle of the book included descriptive paragraphs of each Developmental Skills student. The conclusion was a list of what they learned through reflection on community service (drafting). As the students reworked their pages, they decided to include a dedication page and a page about the authors (revision). They then edited their work, and I published their book on the computer (editing and publication).
The students were actively involved in this writing project. They knew that they were experts because their writing was based on their own community-service-learning experiences. Because they made decisions on presentation and content, they owned the writing. And because I was comfortable with the knowledge that students were experimenting with many writing strategies, techniques, and styles and integrating them into their experiences as writers, I was able to give them plenty of time. The three basics of writing—time, ownership, and response—were an integral part of this report (see Atwell 1987).
The class was an active workshop. Students constantly responded because they had a real audience—the people attending the Exceptional People's Awareness Day Exhibit.
The genre chosen by the students, the picture book, incorporating all aspects of the writing process, supported the curriculum. Real writing for real purposes supported the regular education students. And the community service learning/inclusion process supported the special education students. Because there was such a fine line between community service learning and inclusion, the two processes supported and reinforced each other. This fine line enabled us to weave curriculum into real-life experiences and enrich the learning of both regular and special education students.
Atwell, N. (1987). In the Middle. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.
Active Citizenship Today, a program of service-learning pilot projects in the Omaha Public Schools, demonstrates service learning with a corollary, the examination of public policy. Five projects, involving students in geography, history, and government classes, illustrate what students have learned through community service.
One project, developed by a high school Honors Geography class, began by asking students what they wanted the United States to look like in 10 years and what needed to be done to achieve that goal. They isolated what they considered to be the country's most serious problem: the budget deficit. They then invited knowledgeable people to speak to the class on the deficit and potential solutions to the problem. Among the speakers were the mayor of the City of Omaha, the governor of Nebraska, and the congressman from Nebraska's Second District. After the class felt they had acquired as much information as possible, they developed a series of recommendations and then surveyed other social studies classes, families, and neighbors on their reactions to the recommendations. Armed with this information, the class developed proposals for how the federal government ought to deal with the budget deficit.
Two representatives of the class went to Washington, D.C., and presented the report to a member of President Clinton's staff and requested that it be forwarded to the President. They later received acknowledgment of the report from the President's Office. Although the students realized that the budget deficit was not the sort of problem they could solve themselves, they wanted to have some input on an issue so crucial to their future.
A high school government class examined the bills introduced in the Nebraska legislature for a year and decided to concentrate on one that proposed lowering the blood alcohol level for the definition of "drunk driving." The students invited an emergency room nurse, a drug and alcohol counselor, and a policeman to talk with them about the bill. The class traveled to the state capitol where they met with several state senators, including one who had co-introduced the bill. Students formulated their opinions on the bill and, as a final step, wrote letters to their senators. Unfortunately, the bill died in committee. This was another lesson: one in the reality of politics.
A geography class decided to combine a community-needs survey and a lesson in geography. The teacher presented background about the community, and the class gathered information about the history of Omaha from local museums. The head of the Historical Preservation Section of the City Planning Office took the students on a bus tour of the neighborhood, pointing out different types of domestic architecture. The students then began their own survey, recording every single building in eight blocks of the shopping district and its present use. City directories in the public library helped them determine what kinds of buildings had been on each lot over the past 100 years. Using computers, they made a series of historical maps showing how the types of businesses in the community had changed over the years and discussed the reasons for the changes. They then drew up a community-needs survey based on their research.
Another government class took note of the fact that the Governor of Nebraska had appointed a task force to make recommendations about changes in the welfare system. They invited two state senators from the task force and the Douglas County Commissioner responsible for oversight of welfare to discuss the welfare system and the suggested improvements. A critique of the task force plan was followed by students' recommendations for welfare system change. Finally, the governor visited the high school to receive the students' report and discuss it with them.
An American History class teamed up with the local Western Heritage Museum to learn about the creation and funding of the museum, the acquisition of artifacts, and the development of exhibits. The class discussed society's need for and support of museums. Working in groups, students chose a topic for an exhibit which they will create. The museum and the school will host a reception for the students and their parents and will display the students' exhibits. The students will serve as junior docents at the museum.
These are examples of the way in which projects can be developed around public policy questions. In each project, students incorporate the policy examination of service into their academic studies and make policy recommendations, or provide service relating to the issue in some way. Students are using the community as a laboratory to learn about the world in which they live.
Director, Pennsylvania Institute for Service Learning, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Most high school vocational education programs are characterized as "school-to-work transition" or "preparation for employment." These programs are under considerable pressure for several reasons: the failure of many schools to place graduates in areas of training, the ever-increasing expense of providing up-to-date equipment for vocational education classes, and employers' negative perceptions of the ability of high school students. Many people working in the field of vocational education see competency-based youth apprenticeship or citizenship education as the solution to the problems inherent in traditional classroom-based vocational education.
In solving these problems, schools must reach out to communities for real-life experiences and to industry for training on modern equipment. Vocational education should prepare students with a business/community-based approach, particularly in view of the current emphasis on outcome-based education, which favors apprenticeship models over classroom models.
Community service programs—where students use the skills they've learned in school to carry out meaningful projects in the community—have become popular, even to the point of being advocated in President Clinton's National Service Act of 1993. Such programs become service-learning programs when teachers blend the service performed into the school curriculum. This community-based program is similar to school transition programs, with the exception that students receive no financial reward as part of community service learning.
For the purpose of identifying the connections between service learning and job preparation, the federal legislative definition of "service learning" contained in the National Service Act of 1993 is most revealing:
The term service learning means a method:
- under which students learn and develop through active participation in thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs and that are coordinated in collaboration with the school and community;
- that is integrated into the students' academic curriculum or provides structured time for a student to think, talk, or write about what the student did and saw during the actual service activity;
- that provides students with opportunities to use newly acquired skills and knowledge in real-life situations in their own communities; and
- that enhances what is taught in school by extending student learning beyond the classroom and into the community and helps to foster the development of a sense of caring for others.
It is clear that the methods used in service learning parallel efforts in job training programs. Leaders in both fields are beginning to see the symbiosis between service learning and future employment.
Hilary Pennington, President of Jobs for the Future, sums up the argument for combining service learning and job training:
We see service learning as a close cousin to work-based learning, one which shares many of its benefits. For example, service learning is one of the few opportunities for students to experience what it means to contribute to society—to make a difference—especially during a period of adolescent growth when this experience is very developmentally important. It re-connects the students to his or her community, and the school (if the effort is school-based) to its neighborhood. Moreover, service learning, like apprenticeship experiences, contextualizes the student's learning, whether that learning stems from the classroom, the workplace, or the service project. Service learning, if done well, provides the environment in which students can gain organizational, team, and problem-posing and -solving skills, and other attitudes and capabilities necessary to future work and learning (quoted by Halperin 1992).
Sam Halperin (1992), of the American Youth Forum, agrees with Pennington. He believes we can better address two issues through service learning: scale and access. Halperin sees that "apprenticeship" programs face enormous difficulties as they reach for scale. Using well-designed service-learning experiences, we may be able to achieve many of the learning goals of the apprenticeship work experience through placements in both private and public, profit and nonprofit sectors. Though service learning often lacks the formality and content of the paid work experience, it does provide students with a broader spectrum of experience in the community and the workplace.
Student access is particularly important when schools consider the use of service-learning programs to foster preemployment skills and job readiness. Most apprenticeship programs require students to have working papers, meaning that they must be at least 16 years old. This places such programs in the 11th and 12th grades. Unfortunately, a majority of urban, non-college-bound youth who could most profit from such programs have dropped out of school before the 11th grade. The result is that students in most need of such training are the least likely to receive it. The ideal solution to this dilemma is to use service-learning experiences for students younger than 16 to provide job readiness skills in real-life situations.
Stephen F. Hamilton (1990) of Cornell University endorses such a system of service programs. He advocates apprenticeship programs that combine community service programs in what he calls a "comprehensive apprenticeship system." Hamilton argues that apprenticeship programs in countries such as Germany and Denmark fit their culture and have established traditions of skill training accepted by industry. No such circumstances exist in the United States. Rather, he feels, community service learning in action can augment work experience programs to achieve the same training results as in the European countries.
To Hamilton, community service learning gives younger adolescents "worker roles with a degree of complexity and level of responsibility that they could not ordinarily find in paid employment" (1990, p. 154). Moreover, volunteer service projects undertaken by groups of young people provide experiences in planning and management that are unavailable to them in most work settings. By initiating projects that otherwise would not exist, youth take control of the decision-making process from which they are normally excluded in adult settings. In addition, service programs permit student diversity and work-based skill training.
Beyond the large-scale employment preparation projects, many vocational education teachers promote service learning in their classrooms. In addition, there are some attempts to promote large-scale programs that encourage teachers to try service-learning methodology when developing job-training programs. The Readers' Digest Fund, for example, has given seven schools in New York City over $1 million to combine service learning and preparation for employment (Walks of Life Program). Such service-learning projects use personal and vocational skills learned in the classroom to complete projects in the community. Despite the limited scope of such programs, they do exist and provide working models for the future. For example, a construction class rehabilitates houses for the poor; carpentry classes construct a courtroom in Pittsburgh; electrical classes also help rehabilitate houses. The only limitation for these vocational education service-learning classes is the imagination of the instructors.
The experience of the Pennsylvania Institute for Community Service Learning in training teachers has shown that the group of vocational education teachers most willing to become involved in service learning are home economics teachers. According to Carol Buncie, a teacher at Garden Spot High School in Pennsylvania, home economics is a subject area that has lost large numbers of teachers and students because "teaching home-making skills to females is no longer appropriate in a society that fosters sex equality." Service learning has enabled home economics teachers to stretch the curriculum beyond the traditional home-making mentality. They are excited by the possibilities fostered by intergenerational programs and human service projects that make their subject more than just a training ground for future homemakers.
Clearly, service-learning programs provide the missing link for school-to-work transition at all levels of the educational ladder. If Hamilton, Pennington, and Halperin are right, service learning must become part of programs that accelerate preparation for employment. What impact this movement will have on U.S. education is still unknown. But it offers the most hope and the best opportunity for universal involvement by our schools and communities in meaningful preparation for life.
Halperin, S. (April 1992). "Proposal for Career/Service-Learning Pre-Apprenticeship Program." Unpublished manuscript.
Hamilton, S.F. (1990). Apprenticeship for Adulthood: Preparing Youth for the Future. New York: Free Press.
Kennedy, T., and M. Rodale. (1987). Community Options: The Regeneration Project. Emmaus, Pa.: Rodale Press.
Youth and America's Future: The William T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family and Citizenship. (1988). The Forgotten Half: Non-College Youth in America. Washington, D.C.: Author.
Youth and America's Future: The William T. Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family and Citizenship. (1988). The Forgotten Half: Pathways to Success for America's Youth and Young Families. Washington, D.C.: Author.
Carol W. Kinsley, Director, Community Service Learning Center, Springfield, Massachusetts. Address: Community Service Learning Center, 333 Bridge St., Springfield, MA 01103. Telephone: (413) 734-6857. Fax: (413) 747-5368.
Kate McPherson, Director, Project Service Leadership, Vancouver, Washington. Address: 12703 N.W. 20th Ave., Vancouver, WA 98695. Telephone: (206) 576-5070. Fax: (206) 576-5068.
Kinsley and McPherson provide technical assistance, teacher training, and resource materials to K–12 teachers, schools, and districts interested in developing effective service-learning programs and policies. Kinsley serves on the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service, and McPherson serves on the Washington Commission for National and Community Service. Both facilitate regional technical assistance centers as part of the National Service-Learning Cooperative: ServeAmerica K–12 Clearinghouse, sponsored by the National Youth Leadership Council and funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service. Kinsley also serves asa national consultant for the National Society for Experiential Education.
Caroline Allam, Managing Director, KIDS Consortium, Portland, Maine. Address: KIDS Consortium, c/o Southern Maine Technical College, 2 Fort Rd., South Portland, ME 04106.
Mike Bookey, President, Digital Network Architects, Inc., Issaquah, Washington. Address: DNA Inc., 5720 189th S.E., Issaquah, WA 98027.
Michelle Boorstein, Reporter, Associated Press, Providence Rhode Island.. Address: Associated Press, 190 Waterman St., Providence, RI 02906.
Cory Bowman, Assistant Director, Penn Program for Public Service, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Address: Center for Community Partnerships, 3440 Market St., Ste. 440, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Mary Chamberlain, Teacher, Rebecca Johnson School, Springfield, Massachusetts. Address: 164 Nassau Dr., Springfield, MA 01102.
Julie Coar, Former Student, Gig Harbor High School, Gig Harbor, Washington. Currently a student at The Evergreen State College, 4209 Indian Pipe Loop, N.W., Bldg. U208B, Olympia, WA 98505–0003.
Sally Fellows, TEacher, Active Citizenship Today, Omaha, Nebraska. Address: Teachers Administrative Center, 3215 Cuming St., Omaha, NE 68131.
Ira Harkavy, Director, Center for Community Partnerships, Assistant to the President, University of Pennyslvania, Philadelphia, Pennyslvania. Address: Center for Community Partnerships, 3440 Market St., Ste. 440 Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Rick Jackson, Vice President, YMCA of Greater Seattle, Seattle, Washington. Address: YMCA of Greater Seattle, 909 Fourth Ave., Seattle, WA 98104.
Jo-Anne Wilson Keenan, School/Family Curriculum Integration Teacher, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, Massachusetts. Address: 38 Edelcy Dr., Belchertown, MA 01007.
Lisa Laplante, Project Manager, Community Service Learning Center, Springfield, Massachusetts. Address: Community Service Learning Center, 333 Bridge St., Springfield, MA 01103.
Denise Messina, Meditation Corrdinator, Forest Park Middle School, Springfield, Massachusetts. Address: Oakland Ave., Springfield, MA 01108.
Peter J. Negroni, Superintendent, Springfield Public Schools, Springfield, Massachusetts. Address: 195 State St., Springfield, MA 01103.
Janice M. Reeder, Principal, Gig Harbor High School, Gig Harbor, Washington. Address: gig Harbor High School, 5101 Rosedale St., Gig Harbor, WA 98335.
Richard W. Riley, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. Address: c/o Thomas G. Carroll, U.S. Dapartment of Education, 400 Maryland Ave., S.W., Washington, DC 20202–0100.
Wokie Roberts-Weah, Director of National Programs, National Youth Leadership Council. Address: National Youth Leadership Council, 1910 West County Rd. B, Roseville, MN 55113.
Harry Silcox, Director, Pennsylvania Institute for Service Learning, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Address: Henry Ave. & Schoolhouse Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19144.
Len Solo, Principal, Graham & Parks Alternative Public School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Address: Graham & Parks Alternative Public School, 15 Upton St., Cambridge, MA 02139. Telephone: (617) 349-6612; fax: (617) 349-6615.
James toole and Pamela Toole, Co-Directors, Compass Institute, St. Paul, Minnesota. Address: Compass Institute, P.O. Box 8007, St. Paul, MN 55108. Telephone: (612) 787-0409.