S.

Baxter

Service Learning and the Development of Citizen Leaders

The decline of associational life, civic engagement, and active citizenry in the United States has not only contributed to the development of a country of isolated, distrustful, and civically ignorant residents, it has resulted in a state of diminished democracy. Much literature discusses the need to restore democracy and reengage citizens, but most research, proposals, and government initiatives, has emphasized restructuring the government. What programs that have focused on reinstituting citizen participation has been narrow and limited to the inclusion of only small segments of society, like the AmeriCorps service program which only includes a small portion of college students at designated colleges. Simultaneously with the movements to either reinvent the government or instill associational life, the last few decades have also experienced a number of reforms in the educational system in the United States. Most recently, the No Child Left Behind Act places standardized testing over developmental needs and individualized learning. Where preliminary results have demonstrated minimal improvements in standardized testing scores, these increases are believed to have reduced the quality of education as it provides an inferior and restricted curriculum, eliminates the teaching of critical topics not included on standardized tests, diminishes critical thinking skills and creativity, and only teaches to a level of rote memorization. In the more than six years since its inception, not a single state has been able to meet any of the acts established goals. John Dewey proclaimed, Democracy must be reborn in each generation. Education is the midwife. He envisioned a universal education program that incorporated broad and in-depth learning experiences that avoided the isolation and abstract learning of traditional classrooms. David Kolb based his theory of experiential and active learning on these educational concepts of Dewey. Requiring service of students is not a new concept and is present in national initiatives back to nearly a century ago. From President Roosevelts Civilian Conservation Corps to President Clintons Corporation for National and Community Service Act, these service programs were established to inspire and motivate people to serve in their communities and have made an impact at varying levels. However, they do not address the organizational crisis of diminished democracy and loss of civic culture at a systemic level as they only create a patchwork of programs with limited opportunities for small segments of the population. These programs are just a prescriptive answer to a systemic national concern. Whether these two public and national concerns are intimately connected, are outcomes of similar, associated factors, or are completely detached trends in society are not as relevant as the introduction of service learning as a remedy to both revitalizing active citizenship and civic culture and reforming the nations educational system to produce better academically performing students with highly developed complex thinking skills, emotional levels, social skills, selfefficacy, and civic responsibility. Most definitions of citizenship and citizen rights excludes youth under 18 years old. Initiatives such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child has stressed that even though a child is dependent on their family for their care and

S. Baxter upbringing, they are not dependent on them for their rights. The positive youth development perspective views children as contributors with abilities, rather than a social problem needing to be fixed. Including youth as citizens has benefits for not only the nation and its communities, it provides youth with a battery of invaluable skills for the assurance of a thriving democracy.

The Emergence of Service Learning

One program that arose from these various national service initiatives and addresses a multitude of academic and developmental learning needs, includes community service activities, and is based on experiential learning theories is service learning. First appearing in the early 1980s, service learning has come to be a documented and proven learning approach as it serves as a bridge between theoretical learning and real-life application of knowledge, while providing a benefit to the community and modeling a vital civic culture. Since that time, the number of service learning programs in public schools and universities across the country has increased tremendously. Service learning helps in the making of expert citizens. Students have a greater likelihood to be active in their community, show a greater interest and knowledge on political and social issues, have higher voter turnout, develop a greater understanding of the complexities and responsibilities of citizenship, and cultivate an increased feeling that they can do something towards effecting social change in their communities. Youth become active members and contributors in their communities and their country, rather than just recipients or bystanders. Service learning has positive outcomes on academic performance, cognitive and critical thinking abilities, and understanding of course concepts. It results in considerable benefits to students in areas of personal, social, emotional, and moral benefits, as well as improved leadership abilities and a greater sense of personal responsibility. The benefits from service learning are so vast that they spread out among all involved playersstudents, faculty, staff, school, and the community and showed positive outcomes on all community factors in the areas of economics, social networks, relationships with colleges, identifying potential employees, getting more people involved in the community, and parents that are more involved in their childs education. Some of the greatest arguments against service learning relate to the debate between social and academic benefits. Where the social benefits of service learning is not doubted, it is often viewed as just a nice, extracurricular social activity. However, students that are involved in service learning are reported to spend more personal time studying. The argument that service learning is just forced altruism is often presented, but research has shown that whether service is demanded or volunteered, equivalent benefits are revealed. In addition, research reports that service learning programs are not any less demanding academically. A final argument against service learning is that it interferes with the teaching of standardized tests. Over the past decade, the movement away from experiential learning and developmentally appropriate curriculums towards the teaching of standardized tests has been criticized as ineffective and adverse to learning by many educators and administrators. The education system should be adapting and make learning fit the needs of every student to ensure positive learning experiences, rather than make a young, developing child adapt to one single, prescribed national standard. Researchers state that the aftermath of these rigid educational policies has created a system that focuses only on the memorization of items for tests, rather than understanding of concepts or application of theories in the real world. Service learning brings learning, acting, and thinking together in a single, integrated program.

S. Baxter

Institutionalizing Service Learning

The research on service learning as a broad educational approach is still building. Despite the varying results in research studies, service learning consistently provides positive academic, cognitive, and personal outcomes for students, schools, and the community. In addition, service learning provides no hindrance to required academic learning, is no less rigorous, and has never demonstrated any negative effects, even in low-quality programs. Where a wealth of research exists on the benefits of service learning, many still state the need for the development of comprehensive and accepted standards of quality, evaluation models and strategies, and comprehensive information on implementation and sustainability. Beyond evaluation and reporting on service learning as a stand-alone program, studying it as a means of increasing social capital and providing long-term improvements is also a necessary step in promoting its institutionalization. Referencing Martin Luther King Juniors claim that everyone can be great, because everyone can serve, Senator John Glenn and Marian Wright Edelman make a case for service learning as a solution to civic and educational reform. They state, educating our youths for citizenship is our most important public work and that service learning can meet multiple educational goals of preparing students for college, careers, life, and effective citizenship. Glenn and Edelman make a strong request of the nations educators, school administrators, community leaders, parents, and students to make community service and service learning an ongoing and integrated part of the educational curriculum. With the minimal progress of recent educational policies and the inability of presidential service initiatives to reverse the downward trend of the nations civic culture, service learning has demonstrated the ability to remedy both of these ailments in those communities where it has been implemented. The Chinese proverb, Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I will remember. Involve me, and I will understand, perfectly reflects the nature of service learning and its place in education and civic renewal. Service learning can resolve the crisis of becoming a nation of bystanders and spectators while providing a more effective approach to reforming the nations education system. It can revitalize our citizenry creating a nation of leaders by fostering citizen leaders from the nations youngest citizens. The plea by Senator Glenn and Edelman to institutionalize service learning is one that warrants immediate national attention.
Sheri Baxter is a Ph.D. student in Public Policy and Administration at Walden University and has an MPA in Public Administration from the University of Alaska. 342 East 62nd Street #2 New York, NY 10065 sheriboberry@att.net 410-991-9015