Outcomes from catholic service-learning.(student community service)

Abstract

Service-learning attempts to reconnect communities, schools, and students in the name of democracy and the benefit of the disenfranchised. Catholic schools have added another component, framing service as the exercise of one's faith in benefit to marginalized groups. This paper draws on interviews conducted with seniors at an urban parochial high school. Outcomes from their service experiences are examined vis-a-vis the goals of their high school's Christian service program.

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Historical Roots of Contemporary Concerns

In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville (1969) asserted that America's communal bonds were casual and transient, in part because of individuals' "restlessness in the midst of prosperity," and because Americans "never stop thinking of the good things they have not got" (p. 565). He coined an essential phrase to capture the characteristics and traits he was witnessing--individualisme. De Tocqueville warned, however, that the strong notion of individualism could eventually lead to the isolation of individuals, threatening the foundations of American society. Indeed, Barber (1992) and other observers of contemporary society (e.g., Bellah et al., 1985; Putnam, 2000) conclude that, in the last half century in particular, individualism, autonomy, and self-reliance have triumphed over civic commitment and responsibility. Metz and Furman (1997) argue that the strong anti-communitarian ethos has extended to our school systems, resulting in students who experience a lack of connection not only between classroom learning and their personal lives, but also between classroom learning and public issues. Even those who come to school ready to learn cannot be effectively educated if a sizable minority of them lack a personal stake in the society. Clearly, educators and communities need to re-examine the role that youth play in a civic-oriented, democratic society.

Service-Learning as Dewey's Experiential Learning

The theoretical foundations of service-learning are attributed to John Dewey (1938; 1956) who argued that the key to learning is the interaction of knowledge and skills with experience. Dewey's focus was on the "inert knowledge problem" (Whitehead, 1929), or the tendency of students to acquire stores of knowledge that are useless in new situations (Eyler and Giles, 1999). Through experiential education, by contrast, students are challenged to discover relationships among ideas for themselves, rather than passively receiving the information through prescriptive or "banking" methods (Freire, 1970) about such relationships from the authorities around them (Dewey, 1916). Dewey argued that discovering relationships is a wholehearted affair, linking emotions and intellect by capturing student interest and passion. Such learning is intrinsically valued because it deals with problems that incite the student's curiosity (Giles and Eyler, 1994). Dewey viewed the student's community as an integral part of the educational experience, because it represents what is most familiar and comfortable and provides a venue for the application of knowledge outside of school bounds. Community-based learning, therefore, could be central both to the advancement of the student and to the betterment of future societies.