Service Learning Commons^™

Learning Through Community Service: An Interview With Kate Mcpherson, Catalyst

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Kate McPherson is the director of Project Service Leadership in Vancouver, Washington, a nonprofit agency that provides consulting and technical assistance to Northwest schools that are developing service-learning programs.

Public Law 103-82 [H.R. 2010] September 21, 1993 National And Community Service Trust Act Of 1993, Corporation For National Service

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An Act To amend the National and Community Service Act of 1990 to establish a Corporation for National Service, enhance opportunities for national service, and provide national service educational awards to persons participating in such service, and for other purposes.

Summary Of National And Community Service Trust Act, Serve America

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The national service initiative is designed to address the nation's problems by mobilizing Americans of every background, but particularly young people, in service to our communities and country. The programs support service extending from our youngest elementary students to our oldest citizens, and will fund service ranging from part-time volunteer activities to full-time public service with educational awards.

Outline Of Legislation: National And Community Service Trust Act, Corporation For National Service

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The national service initiative is designed to tackle the nation's problems by mobilizing Americans of every background, and particularly young people, in service to our communities and country. The programs extends support for service from the youngest elementary students to our oldest citizens, and includes everything from part-time volunteer activities to full-time public service jobs. The centerpiece of the effort to support service is a new program to offer educational awards to Americans who make a substantial commitment to service.

"Leave School And Learn": Seekonk High School's Independent Study Program, Jay D. Anderson

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Change comes slowly to education. Schools are bound by tradition and a high school curriculum often remains constant. There are many reasons for a curriculun1 not changing, including meeting the course pre-requisites for college admission. Often, however, there is a resistance to change. As a result, many students take the same courses as their parents took when in school.

Tackling Society's Problems In English Class, Jim Burke

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A high school teacher's impromptu unit on "Social Problems" gave his students an opportunity to develop their writing skills while expanding their concept of community.

Fairy Tale Friends, Mary Chamberlain

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As students grow into responsible citizens. they need to realize that the quality of their lives is affected by the quality of the relationships in their lives.

This Community Service learning Unit - Fairy Tale Friends - was designed as part of the language Arts, English and Reading, curriculum. Middle School students will work on a Fairy Tale Unit. They will learn characteristics of Fairy Tales and fiction, using strategies of the writing/reading process. and cooperative learning. After the completion of the unit, they will work with elementary students, helping them write Fairy Tales.

Part two of their instruction will …

State Of Service Report: Executive Summary, Minnesota Office On Volunteer Services

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Since the mid-1980's Minnesota has articulated a comprehensive vision for youth service which calls for the integration of service into the full spectrum of a person's life. Organizations reaching K-12 young people, college students, adult volunteers, and full- and part-time service volunteers in the Minnesota Conservation Corps and other programs would provide service opportunities at every age level for every Minnesotan. We continue to advance toward that vision with important achievements outlined in this report.

A Proposal For The Michigan K-12 Service-Learning Center, The Michigan Partnership For New Education

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The Michigan Partnership for New Education, in collaboration with Michigan State University's College of Education and with several partner universities, proposes to establish a K-12 Service Learning Center, headquartered at Michigan State. The Center would:

1. promote the principles and practices of service-learning in the schools in Michigan generally, through a series of activities ranging from building networks and holding conferences to training teachers, shaping policy and coordinating existing efforts. Such activities would, where possible, be collaborative efforts with other service-learning initiatives in the state. In e this regard, the Center would be a catalyst, switchboard, cheerleader and organizer, tying …

Mandated Service And Moral Learning, Robert K. Fullinwider

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Recently the Maryland State Board of Education added a new condition for getting a high school diploma: students must perform 75 hours of "service." The activities that count as "service" will be determined by individual districts, and may include everything from tutoring younger students and visiting nursing home residents to working with nonprofit community organizations. The new requirement builds on an already existing voluntary student service program supported by the Maryland Student Service Alliance, a public-private partnership. Although some municipal school systems in the U.S. impose similar requirements, the Maryland school board is the first to adopt a statewide policy.

National And Community Service: Challenges And Opportunities For People With Disabilities To Volunteer In America, Glen W. White

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The recently implemented National and Community Service Act of 1990 calls for Americans of all race, age, ability, and economic status to return to service in their community. To help facilitate this call to service, the National Commission on Community Service has allocated approximately 70 million dollars in grants. The Act focuses on the involvement of youth, including those who are economically disadvantaged and with disabilities. This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by community service program planners and disability organizations, in their efforts to integrate volunteers with disabilities in service to the community. The paper concludes with a …

Designing Computer-Based Writing Tools For Community Action, David Fleming

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Most word and information processing systems arc designed for either large institutions or individual users. Institutions, of course, have benefitted greatly from emerging technologies. These users cover the spectrum of our economic, political, social, and cultural life: large corporations, banks, insurance companies, government agencies, schools, universities, armed services, hospitals, the media. Individual users have been more recent beneficiaries of technological advances, and the computer has begun to make inroads into the way people interact with one another, manage their affairs, and entertain themselves.

Phi Delta Kappan - Special Section On Youth Service, Joe Nathan, James Kielsmeier

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This Special Section on Youth Service features: The Sleeping Giant of School Reform; School-Based Community Service: What We Know from Research and Theory; Project Service Leadership: School Service Projects In Washington State; Gadugi: A Model of Service-Learning for Native American Communities; Citizenship, Service, and School Reform in Pennsylvania; Community Service Learning And School Improvement in Springfield, Massachusetts; Community Service and Civic Education; SerVermont: The Little Initiative That Could; and National Service and Education for Citizenship.

Moving Beyond Apathy To Environmental Action, John Fallis

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It's so nice here compared to Toronto. The air is fresh and the water is so clear. You people don't have any problems.

The city is such a polluted mess. I'd like to help out but I don't know where to start, plus, it seems hopeless!

These are comments of frustrated, environmentally aware high school students who have participated in residential school programs at the Boyne River outdoor and environmental education centre. During their stay of up to a week, their lives have been enriched through a range of outdoor, hands-on, learning experiences. They may have gained a new perspective …

A Mandate For Liberty: Requiring Education-Based Community Service, Benjamin R. Barber

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The extraordinary rise in American interest in community service has inspired widespread participation by the nation's young in service programs. It has also provoked a profound and telling debate about the relationship of service to voluntarism on the one hand, and to civic education and citizenship on the other. Two complementary approaches to service have emerged that are mutually supportive but also in a certain tension with one another. The first aims at attracting young volunteers, particularly students, out of the classroom and into service projects as part of a strategy designed to strengthen altruism, philanthropy, individualism, and self-reliance. The …

Using Law-Related Education As An Intervention With "High-Risk" Youth, Drake Buzzell

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During these times of scarce resources, policymakers are increasingly devoting more attention to areas where they feel they can make the greatest impact. Many local and state policy discussions are focusing on the relationship of "high-risk" youth, crime, and drug abuse Policymakers as well as social service program directors are particularly interested in the factors contributing to the likelihood that a young person will abuse alcohol or other drugs, and engage in delinquent behavior. We have known for some time that there is a significant correlation between these two behaviors. What is perhaps ironic is that we are back to …

Preliminary Review Of Research In Service Learning, James Krug, Richard J. Kraft

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The following cursory review is taken from the Literature Review on Service Learning conducted by Mr. James Krug (1991) at the University of Colorado. Mr. Krug's research has been on the effects of service learning on four groups of high school young people: at-risk youth in a special program, student assistants (primarily minority) within the school, nature guides, and tutors at a primary school. Preliminary results indicate that, while all the experimental groups gained on measures of potency, activity involvement in the community, self-concept and other factors, the statistically significant growth at the .01 and .05 levels was found almost …

Youth Policy: The Monthly Report On National Youth Programs And Issues (October/November 1990), Youth Policy Institute

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This report features California Gets a "D"; 90% of American Students Don't Pass?; Volunteerism Up; Is Poverty a Reality in America?; and Girl Scouts: Programs Help Youth at Risk.

Congress Likely To Pass Kennedy's National Community Service Measure, The Committee On Labor And Human Resources

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A bill by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the National and Community Service Act, S.1430, should have little trouble gaining congressional approval next session, unless President Bush's Points-of-Light Initiative can muster sufficient support within Congress to challenge it. Kennedy's proposal recently gained strength as a bipartisan effort when Sen. James Jeffords (R-Vt) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) signed on in mid-November as the 22nd and 23rd co-sponsors. Over twenty national service-related bills were introduced in the first session of the 101st Congress. Components of many of these bills ended up in S.1430, which further suggests that the bill stands very good …

Legal Issues In Combining Service And Learning, Michael B. Goldstein

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A basic guide to the legal issues involved in programs that combine educational goals with direct involvement in the community - essential reading for any program administrator. The term "school" is used throughout to indicate any educational institution -elementary, secondary, or postsecondary, public or private - which may sponsor a student service-learning program. The term "agency" denotes any public or private community-based organization which may provide work opportunities or training or supervision of students at work sites. Portions of this analysis of legal issues in internships and experiential learning first appeared in Legal Issues Resource Booklet, by Michael B. Goldstein …

Service-Learning Advances School Improvement: A Position Paper From The International Service Learning Initiative, Barbara Gomez

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The base on which the United States is built is participatory democracy -achieved only when all citizens are included in choice and decision-making. Nothing could be worse for our nation than to have our children feel alienated from the communities in which they attend school. For more than 200 years the rest of the world has been watching our progress, and as we have succeeded they have made efforts to emulate our sense of individual freedom and collective responsibility for governance.

National Youth Service: The Proposed Legislation, Robert H. Atwell

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I'm very happy to be back in sunny Arizona. I was here just a few weeks ago for another meeting, but this week I'm especially glad to be out of Washington, where the weather has been dreary and some of the political debate even drearier.

Because I work in Washington, everybody always wants to know what's really going on in the nation's capital, and why the government can't seem to get anything right. So I thought I'd begin by telling you about something you didn't read in the newspapers, and that's a meeting that took place the other day at …

Reciprocity: A Major Paradigm Shift, John A. Calhoun

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It is not news to the youth-serving community that something new is afoot regarding how we think about and work with youth.

Well known is the stir on the national level: President Bush's YES initiative; numerous pieces of congressional legislation whose proposals range from school-based programs through conservation and urban corps to mandated national service. Locally, projects of various sorts are springing up in schools, youth-serving agencies and in other organizations whose functions impinge on youth.

Not so well known-or fully understood-is a key notion that could well be lost amid the legitimate clamor and enthusiasm for the concept, namely, …

A Magic Mix: After-School Programs In A Nursing Home, Judes Ziemba, Kathleen Roop, Sally Wittenberg

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At 3:00 every afternoon. Monday through Friday. 8-year-old Darlene and nine of her classmates leave school and ride a special bus that brings them to a nearby nursing home where they participate in an afterschool program. At the nursing home. residents anxiously await the children's arrival. Many of them have been sitting patiently iii the lobby for over an hour.

Service: Meeting Youth's Need To Be Needed, James C. Kielsmeier, Rich Willits

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In April 1861, hours after the smoke cleared at Fort Sumpter, the first volunteer military units from the North were organized in preparation for the battle to preserve the Union. They were from Minnesota.

The North Star State is again mobilizing, capturing some of the fresh air of the service movement sweeping the nation, and adding its own populist brand of citizen involvement. Youth service is blooming in America's heartland, and community educators are leading the way.

Violence, Youth And A Way Out, John A. Calhoun

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It is a conviction shared by those who care for young people and their families that violence among youth has reached intolerable levels and that a response is demanded. The homicide statistics are chilling: In 1986, four to five people under age 18 were murdered per day, 10 percent more than in 1985. Equally chilling, three to four people under 18 were arrested for murder every day, a seven percent increase over 1985.

Recommendations To The Presidential Transition Office Regarding The Youth Entering Service To America Foundation, The Youth Service America Working Group On Public Policy

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Youth service today operates from an expanding base of well-organized programs utilizing the energy and idealism of young people to address significant community needs. This programmatic base currently includes 50 full-time state and local youth corps; 450 campus-based community service programs; more than 3,000 junior and senior high school community service programs; additional community-based programs; and federal civilian service programs including the Peace Corps, VISTA, and the Youth Conservation Corps.

Conversation Piece: National Service, Is It For Us?, Carl A. Bade

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Many of the writers, conceptual developers, and advocates of a National Service Program for the United States credit William James with issuing, in 1910, the first call to youth to be enlisted in a program entitled "The Moral Equivalent of War,'' The program was envisioned to engage youth in industrial work and social service, according to their skills and interests. While that did not come to fruition, we saw some forms of it instituted during the bleak days and years of the Great Depression in the 1930's. Thousands of youth were enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps beginning in 1933, …

National Service And Religious Values, L. William Yolton, Edward L. Long Jr.

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The idea of national service covers a range of proposals for organizing young people and, in some cases, senior citizens to do work of national importance to satisfy unmet needs in the society. How people at middle age would be engaged in service is rarely discussed.

Roots Of Service, Theodore H. Erickson

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The thesis that I want to advance is a simple one: It is that service is rooted in religion. Service is religious in the sense that it expresses our bondedness with the universe (religare: to bind fast), and by extension with one another. Over time, service-oriented activities may become rationalized, institutionalized, and secularized. But the roots of service remain religious.