Service learning and high school diploma - Research Paper Example

Service learning and high school diploma Morality and ethics are rapidly diminishing s from the current world because of hugechanges happening in the social, family and individual lives of the people. Religions have lost its prominence considerably over the past few decades which are the major reason for the changes in the attitudes and life philosophies of people. Service mentality is directly related with the beliefs in ethics and morality. In other words, morally sound people will always ready to engage in community servicing activities whereas those who do not have many beliefs in morality and ethics may stay away from community servicing. According to John A Duerk (2009), service learning should be mandatory. Many people believe that community servicing is necessary for building a healthy society and the seeds of service learning should be planted at the school level itself. On the other hand many others are of the view that service learning will reduce the importance of education and it should be isolated from the school curriculum. This paper argues that in order to help students prepare for their future, service learning should be a mandatory requirement to earn a high school diploma. Volunteering can give students experience in different forms of work, to help them plan for a future career. According to Morris (1992),”Yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s children all need the same thing- a sense of belongings to something bigger than themselves”(Morris, p. 3). Schools which focus only on academic subjects cannot cultivate the above sense of belongings into the minds of the children. Society is the laboratory in which people test their abilities in different ways. Since man is a social animal, it is difficult for him to keep a blind eye towards the needs of the society. One of the major criticisms labelled against school subjects is the lack of topics which may help the students in their practical life. Service learning will help the students in avoiding above criticism. Moreover, it will help the students to know more about the necessities of the societies in which they live and to prepare themselves for a better future. Service learning is not indentured servitude. Some people consider service learning as a kind of slavery. In their opinion school is a place in which learning should take place rather than servicing. However, such people have forgotten to realise the fact that learning by doing is the most efficient method of the learning process. Students may get lot of contents from their text books; however they will never realise the importance of such contents in the absence of practice. For example, students may learn more about Mother Teresa and her contributions from text books. But only those who take part in the community servicing will learn more about the depth, breadth and greatness of Mother’s services. According to Jonathan Sims, the student representative of Maryland state board of education, “students who are forced to community work may view the work as something to get out of the way and they will become clock watchers” (Morris, p. 4). The above arguments seem to be meaningless. In my opinion, when planned properly, service learning allows students to utilize their classroom learning, and use it in a real life situation. It is difficult to create a wall between education and servicing. In fact the ultimate aim of education is servicing. Whatever the knowledge acquired by a student while learning, becomes meaningful only when he applies it in his personal, professional and social life. In other words, service learning will help the students to apply their knowledge learned from the classrooms. According to Ron Peiffer, Director of communication and special projects at Maryland state department of education, “when opponents argue that we cannot mandate volunteerism, they are ignoring the basic goal of required service programs ie, education” (Morris, p. 4). “Training throughout the mentoring experience would have helped to make the mentoring experience more satisfying and that the mentors valued a personal relationship with their mentees” (Minson). Teacher student relationship is very much important in the learning process. It may not attain the proper shape when both the teacher and the students interact inside the classrooms alone. Community servicing will help teachers and students to strengthen their mutual bondage. Teaching may not achieve its goals if it occurs only inside the classrooms. Classrooms have limitations in educating the school children in a proper way. Classrooms can provide only the theoretical contents whereas the community can provide practical contents to the school children. Whatever the theories learned from the classrooms should be tested practically in the society in order to make the learning perfect. Service learning wouldn’t benefit the students’ education. Indeed, many students would be unable to volunteer in their field. This negates any argument that service learning would help the students’ education” (Swanson). The above argument is also illogical. The aim of education is to prepare the children to meet all sorts of life challenges effectively in future. In other words, it is ridiculous to argue that a science student should get practical experiences only in science topics. It should be noted that for conducting a successful future personal, professional and social life, he should acquire all sorts of knowledge even if he is specifically studying the science or arts during his school days. Service Learning programs must have specific goals in mind, and a system to support them. It should connect community services to the learning goals. In some cases, people develop service mentality because of genetic reasons. However genetic reasons alone may not help a student to acquire service mentality. Suitable environment will help the students to develop more service mentality. In order to develop suitable environment for service learning, planning and preparations are necessary. To conclude, service learning should be made mandatory in order to prepare the students better equipped for meeting the life challenges in future. Theoretical contents learned from the classrooms will become meaningful only when the students were able to apply it in the practical context. Service learning will help the students in doing so and therefore service learning should be made compulsory to earn a high school diploma. Works Cited Duerk, John A. “Service Learning Should be Mandatory”. 2009. Web. 15 September 2011. Minson, Margaret M. “Mentor Satisfaction And Its Impact On Volunteerism: A Study Of Volunteers Working With At-Risk High School Students”. 2009. Collection for Fordham University. Paper AAI3361359. Web. 15 September 2011. Morris, Christine. “Mandated Volunteerism: Is it Right? Do We Want it?”. 1992. Updating school board policies. Vol 23. No.7. September 1992. Web. 15 September 2011. Swanson, Dale. “Should Service Learning Be Mandatory For College Students?”. Web. 15 September 2011. Read More