Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Reflections on Community Service

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Democracy Matters.  The question is how can we as a society support a vibrant democracy. I believe that the heart of a vibrant democracy rests in an informed citizenry. In achieving this goal, nurture outweighs nature.  So allow me to be practical. Middle schoola snd high schools should explicitly incorportate community service. 

In middle school this should take the form of structured events planned by the school, 2 to 3 times per semester with discussion and reflective writing follow up.  In high school there should be a yearly community service requirement (40hrs). Schools should serve as clearinghouse for opportunities, including offering “in house” opportunities.  The senior year should feature 1 month of dedicated community service at one site in January, with disccussion and reflection during the period.

Finally civics should be more explicitly taught in middle school and high school with an emphasis on “civic duries” which could include: letters to the edicor of local papers, police ride alongs, attending courts, attendence of local/city/state legislative meetings, participation in political campaigns.

These are not random ideas, this was my education at Jesuit schools over 7 years in Baltimore, MD  and Kansas City, MO.  I believe that the impact of those experiences were innumerable. I believe that I am a better person because of it.

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  2. you saw my eariler post regarding Hudson public school.

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    Community Service Learning is part of the curriculum starting in elementary school but really gets serious at Highschool…

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    I can connect you with the CSL coordinator in Hudson if you are interested.

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    Mark

  3. but I have a problem with mandatory volunteerism (aside from the inherent contradiction).  For one thing, many students would have a tough time working for 40 hours and not getting paid for it.  I know in High School that I had to work a lot because of financial necessity, and there were kids who worked way more hours than I did.  Some say that 40 or 50 hours a year is not too much to ask.  That may be true, but if it becomes too spread out, an hour here, then nothing for three weeks, then another hour there, its not very meaningful.

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    If it is more structured, a true service learning experience, with reflection papers and the like, then it would be a lot better.  Ideally it would be connected to the curriculum in some way.  If you are taking a child development class then working in a low income day care center would be appropriate.  If you are taking a health class then working at a community health center,  a civics class then on a voter registration campaign, etc.

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    Many Catholic schools have mandatory service programs for seniors at the end of the year.  I worked at a middle school last year and was burdened with three such boys.  When they were not napping in the equipment closet or taking off for extraordinary long lunches, they were discussing their adventures in fellatio in front of the kids.  I can only imagine the things they were talking about that I didn’t catch.  When I came home after my freshman year in college I remember picking up a couple girls at the nearby Catholic school and going to the beach with them, while they were supposed to be serving.

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    The main problem, methinks, is that they were two weeks away from graduation with nothing to lose.  If a service program like that is going to work it has to be early enough that there can be some ramifications for not taking it seriously.  It can’t be the last thing they do, after finals and after college acceptance letters come in.

    • And can attest that the “reflection paper” was an irritating exercise in forming cow feces into letters of the roman alphabet.

      • but I think it is important.  I recently read Why Gender Matters (the NYT calls “a lucid guide to male and female brain differences” and I recommend it as a quick and informative read that is impeccably sourced)  It explains why if you ask a boy what he is feeling he may not be able to articulate it – those parts of his brain may not yet be connected.

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        I do think it is an important exercise, however.  It places the service and your role in it in a context.  It makes you think, rather than simply do.  That said, I got to look at the reflection books these boys produced and page after page had “I don’t know” written on it.  It can’t be done the month before graduation if it is going to have any meaning.

    • Mandatory volunteering debases the idea of volunteering.  It present serving the community as a task imposed from without, rather than inculcating it as an obligation from within.  It becomes a burden rather than the implicit dues of a free society.

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      However, I agree wtih EP on putting civics somewhere into the curriculum — just tell me what you want to take out.

      • Is it really true that the educational year is a zero sum game?  Is it not possible to add an emphasis on something new or different without removing something else?

  4. the best of both worlds can be achieved in the right school culture. 

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    First Amendment Schools provides a) a structure for community service built right into the school-based learning expectations under b) the four guiding principles that inform a solid civics foundation:  democratic freedom, rights & responsibilities, community engagement, and active citizenship.

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    Why are people trying to reinvent the wheel here?  Very bright minds and forward-thinking schools and districts have already achieved what so many here believe is lacking–with impressive results.  There’s a “best practice” already out there.  Were the DoE to elevate this issue to a priority, all of this could be resolved in relatively short order. 

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    Sorry if my frustration is starting to show….

      • Schools choose to participate and go through the rather rigorous changes in culture and governance that’s required because they are invested in civic responsibility.  I’m saying that if there is a desire to make this universal or at least more widely prevalent, it needs to come from the DOE and there needs to be support for it.  This program, though, works.  It requires buy-in from administration, faculty, staff, and students, which is exactly why it’s effective.  Top down mandates on elective courses is not going to achieve what you want. 

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        BTW, this has nothing whatsoever to do with privilege.  Hudson High School, for example, is hardly a “privileged” high school, but they have achieved tremendous results, especially in dealing with a very diverse student body. 

        • and it didn’t strike me that it’s designed to be a program that could cover every school in a district, or in a state, but perhaps I misunderstood it.

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          In any event, you certainly don’t need to be a 1st amendment school to incorporate service learning.  E.g., Millbury High School does it.  This will no doubt be a major topic of discussion at the Dec. 5 meeting, which I hope many of you can attend.

              1. There are only 17 of them in the entire country.
              2. They get a grant when they are accepted into the program, and I assume the funds are not unlimited.

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              This sounds to me like an exemplary (in the literal sense of the word) program — set up a school like Hudson High as a 1st Amdt school, show everyone how terrific it is, and encourage other schools to adopt similar ideas and priorities, even if they are not formally part of the program.  Am I wrong?

  5. Wow, thanks for the comments everyone.

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    To be fair, the schools I attended had a culture of service.  The motto was to be a “A Man for Others” (it was a all guy school). There is no reason that that culture cannot be modified and replicated.

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    I really don’t think that a mandatory nature devalues community service.  The analogy is simple: You should should brush and floss daily, but if someone didn’t force you to it, you probably wouldn’t now…

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    As far as time, I am positive that even the working middle school or high school student spends more 40hrs a year on either MySpace, AIM, and video games.

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    The bottomline is that community and civic duties service underscore nonpartisan values that are sorely missing in our larger society.

    • When I was a Scout leader, I made a point of taking them to police stations, so they could learn of the many valuable services they provide (they get more cats out of trees than firemen, as it were).  They are first-line social workers, problem solvers, and societal faicilitators, in addition to being crime fightrs and law enforcers.

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      Sometime, attend a Police & Comunity Academy Program, and learn about programs like Triad for the elderly, and other things that modern police departments do.

    • Worcester has a citizens’ police academy……it’s voluntary, but they learn all aspects of how the police dept. functions….and public safety is very important in how civic engagement is perceived.

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      I think our public safety officers would get a lot more respect,  (especially in the larger urban areas), if all citizens took the time to learn where their tax money was really being sent.

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      And being involved in learning about government since the 70’s, I personally believe, that every adult in the Commonwealth, should step up and take responsibility for THEIR government.  As I have stated before, WE are the employers of public servants.

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      Think of it this way, what would this country do is EVERY EMPLOYER, got up and said, I think I’m just gonna stay home today, cause I’m too busy, or my employees don’t matter…I think you get the picture.  And when WE shirk our responsibility, we have to be willing to admit, that the deterioration of our government is as Deval has been saying all along……WE HAVE CHECKED out and left the legislative candidates to make their own agendas, not necessarily what we, in our hearts, want the Commonwealth to be.

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      So we need to fess up and step up, those of us that already don’t.  And be willing teach others that this concept of  “OUR” government is very possible but we need to work hard at it.  Nothing worth having is ever easy.

  7. Unfortunately, I’m quite busy, so I’ll miss out on the dialogue.

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    Here’s the deal:
    1.  Serivce works because its voluntary.  If its not voluntary, it’s known as “a job”.
    2.  Kids already have incredible time demands.  On time of increasing homework constraints and lengthening the school day, kids now do far more after school activities, both a part of the increasing competition to get into good colleges.  In fact, I think you’ll find that kids are actually doing a decent amount of community service now, since colleges use it as a “coin flip” to choose which 3.8/1350 kid to accept.
    3.  You’re going to put some bad apples in that bunch… which can be a real risk depending on what kinds of service.

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    What you’re doing is taking a bunch of kids, putting orange jump suits on them, and having them pick up trash next to the highway.  It’s forced labor, all for the high crime of being a young person.

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    You can’t do it to adults because, well, they have the right to tell you to piss off.  They have the right to determine that a particular charity or cause doesn’t mesh with their beliefs or values.  They have the right to say “to hell with them — free market and all that jazz.”  But you’ve got a captive audience with kids.

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    So, provide them with opportunities.  Teach them about society and giving back.  Encourage them to reach out and to branch out.

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    But don’t you dare force kids to do community service because you think it benefits them and society at large.  Just like you shouldn’t dare require that kids wear condoms (or abstain), and you shouldn’t dare require that kids take drivers ed, etc.  They’re tangental to public education, and while I plan on encouraging, nay demanding that my kids do plenty of community service, I don’t think it’s appropriate for the state to require kids to do those things.

      • but where I fall off the wagon is where I can see people creating all kinds of detrimental externalities and the libertarians insisting that this is OK, and that the government shouldn’t be concerned.

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        Life is complicated and messy, and people make decisions that effect others.  Libertarians plug their ears to this idea.  Furthermore, contract law sucks and is a major expense, and it seems to be a theoretically elegant but practially awful solution to many libertarian-created problems.

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        So yeah, I’m a big fan of the government backing off — but I do like how regulation can reduce detrimental externalities.

    • Encourage, support and maybe even provide incentives for community service, but don’t require it.

    • You require the course in school……you give them the tools to decide whether of not that community service is something that  they willingly want to do.

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      It’s kind of like a young child and broccoli……if you never get them to try it, they will go their whole life thinking that they don’t like it.

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      It’s our job to introduce children and young adults to as many life experiences as possible or we create a very narrow-minded next generation, and a very bad legacy for our generation. 

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      A quote we use in the disability community……”Adapt or perish.”

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      We are making much more of this then we need to….we need to find a way to get past the “everything must remain as it was in the 19th century”, and set a course for the 21st.  Sometimes change is the only way to make it better.

      • You offer the course in school, give them some freedom (perhaps they get to go to city  hall, or the state house and get out of their regular classes from time to time), make it a class that kids want to get into….And if some kids are caught napping in the equipment room, then they get pulled out of the class and can spend the time in another more traditional class. 

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        And as for my kids, they respond better to an approach of eat your broccoli and then you can have desert than to eat your broccoli or no TV.  Maybe my kids are just stubborn…
        (and I know they never eat broccoli at school….)  đŸ™‚

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        • field work is crucial…and choose diverse places within the community to do hands on.  Most definitely 1 trip to the Statehouse,  possibly a committee hearing….the real (less glamorous part of the job.  Or well, the teacher could take it in many different directions to keep it from total boredom.  Even to asking some of us from the grassroots to visit the classroom and share our personal experience and give the students the chance to ask questions…

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          Knowledge IS power!

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          Sorry, the broccoli analogy, was the least traumatic I could think of at 4am this morning.  đŸ™‚

    • you shouldn’t dare require that kids take drivers ed, etc

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      Maybe that’s just a bad example, because I think everyone should take driver’s ed.  Especially around here.  In fact, some people should take it twice.

      • you don’t have to take drivers ed, in any state of the Union.

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        However, if you’re under 16, you have to go to school.  No exceptions.  That’s an important difference.

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        Some drivers should certainly take it twice, on that we can certainly agree.

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