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On the White House Agenda: Service Learning
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | January 29, 2009
It seems like everybody is talking about the White House website lately. In fact, it was mentioned in three different meetings I attended yesterday. So, I decided to check it out for myself – with an eye to finding information relevant to Making Connections.
Not surprisingly, I clicked on the Education tab on the Agenda first. This was the first thing I read:
Address the Dropout Crisis:
Obama and Biden will address the dropout crisis by passing legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school — strategies such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time.
This is good news, but there is a lot more on the site, and the message is strong. Take the time to visit the site yourself, and focus on the topics that are meaningful to you. What grabs my attention, what I seem to hear the most talk about, and what has filled me with the most hope for this new time defined by this new administration, is the message of civic engagement, aka Service.
The website encourages us to:
Enable All Americans to Serve to Meet the Nation’s Challenges
Integrate Service into Learning
- Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation’s Schools: Set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. Develop national guidelines for service learning and give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience.
- Expand Youth Programs: Create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields. Expand the YouthBuild program to give 50,000 disadvantaged young people the chance to complete their high school education, learn valuable skills and build affordable housing in their communities.
- Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
- Promote College Serve-Study: Ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.
I have written often on this blog about the positive impact that happens when kids at risk have the chance to help others. President Obama’s call to service therefore, is an opportunity, not only to encourage more mentors and volunteers to work with kids, but a chance for mentoring pairs, after-schools programs, buddy programs, etc., to go out together and find ways to do something for someone else.
As we have seen over and over in the research in this course and in stories on this blog, volunteering and learning through service to others offers often unexpected benefits. These include (but are definitely not limited to) self-discovery, increased confidence, a sense of purpose, satisfaction, new perspectives, and many chances to see the world beyond our own neighborhoods (and our own place within it.) Service opens the door to new experiences, new friendships, and even, new careers. When people learn and serve together, they create new ways to connect to each other as well.
And, as I always like to say, when we work together to help others, everybody benefits.
Topics: Community Service, Quality Time |