School Transitions to Service Learning

September 11, 2009

You get a flurry of instant messages and texts the week before school starts all saying the same thing: “Did you do your hours yet?”

So why do we do this? We wait until the very last minute to turn in our hours, maybe even to start them. Luckily, a new plan for Christian/Community Service (C/CS) hours is in the works to address just that – amongst other things – and we should all become a lot more familiar with turning in our service hours on time.

This new plan for C/CS is dubbed “Service Learning,” and the title certainly fits. “You do service, and it’s reflected upon in your classes. Before, during, and after, it’s woven into them,” said Father Tito Bonoan, supervisor of the current C/CS system.
In my time here at Moreau, I can say that that the experience of turning in hours close to or after the deadline is a fairly standard one. The idea of Service Learning is an innovative approach to getting us to not just complete our hours, but do so in an organized and constructive way.

While the principle of Service Learning isn’t unheard of (it is the concept behind our freshman year I-Searches), it’s an experimental step in a positive direction. “It’s new to a lot of the staff,” theology teacher Tony Rodriguez said. “It will be more work in some regards, but the payoff’s a lot greater.”

Having service hours more clearly related to class would really give a tangible reason to get them done on time, and would probably make the point of service a lot more obvious to us.
“Say there’s a Service Learning project that’s due and graded,” Assistant Principal Peter Shelley said. “You’ll get it done, instead of saying ‘I have all summer.’”

However, not all students realize the need for change with the current hours system. “It’s fine,” senior Austin Intal said. “They should just let us keep doing what we’re doing.”

But Intal stated he has only completed five hours to date. Service Learning plans to address that and would help give us that extra push to complete our hours on time.
Some students also enjoy the ample amount of time provided to catch up with the required paperwork. “It’s more convenient doing it over the summer,” junior Felicity Chen said. “It takes me a long time to write about it.”
Chen however, reportedly turns in more than 200 hours in one year alone, and probably wouldn’t be affected by a change in the system.

The hours handed in precariously close to the deadline also don’t seem to faze the higher-ups.  “It’s just typical teenager behavior,” Shelley said.
So why the big transition? Well, as Bonoan said, “The ideal is not to require it or mandate it, but to integrate it. That’s what it’s all about.”

After my four years of seeing people turn in their hours way too close to the deadline, I can confidently say that we need Service Learning.  It’s efficient, it’s engaging, and maybe we can finally stop getting those annoying text messages.

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