Meeting Civics and Government Standards through Service-Learning
by Eric Hartman

Combining service-learning and character education is a win-win strategy for students, teachers and the community. Character Education helps ensure that schools teach students what First Lady Laura Bush recently called the fourth essential R: Responsibility. Service-learning gives students an opportunity to live lives of character and to exercise responsibility to their communities through direction, action and experience.
 
Numerous studies have demonstrated the powerful impact of service-learning on students’ desire to master – rather than merely memorize – the traditional subjects. Service-learning also acts as an impetus for internalization of character education lessons. Memorizing concepts of kindness or compassion pales in comparison to experiencing the surge of fulfillment and understanding that flows from creating community.
 
Fortunately, character education and service-learning are both fluid teaching methodologies that can be adapted to any grade level or course. Biology teachers may combine a service-learning project in which students test local water sources for purity with reflection activities regarding the ethical role of both public and private decision makers in maintaining a clean environment. High school math or business teachers may drive home important lessons and reinforce concepts of community and citizenship by training their students to help community members with tax forms.  Elementary students may gain an introduction to the joy of serving others and an improved understanding of nutrition by helping sort foods at a food bank. With careful teacher guidance, a school food drive may be organized in such a way that students understand community needs from both a mathematical and nutritional perspective. With activities such as these, the students will better understand the curriculum content, serve their community and begin to consider how their daily decisions affect their broader community. 
 
All of these proposed projects introduce students to the habit-forming, character-reinforcing experience of service. Clearly, there are possibilities for connecting service-learning and character education to any curriculum, yet the civics curriculum deserves special attention, since one of its explicit purposes is to prepare students to be active participants in a strong, deliberative democracy. 

Connecting to PA’s Proposed Academic Standards for Civics and Government  
Teaching citizenship and developing character through service-learning is clearly aligned with Pennsylvania’s Proposed Academic Standards for Civics and Government.  Ultimately, as the preamble to the standards indicates, PA schools were created “to educate children to be useful citizens, loyal to the principles upon which our Republic was founded, and aware of their duties as citizens to maintain those ideals.”
 
The Standards for Civics and Government are divided into four sections: 5.1. Principles and Documents of Government; 5.2. Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship; 5.3. How Government Works; and 5.4. How International Relationships Function.  A well-designed service-learning effort could make any of the concepts more compelling to students, as will be explained in connection with the brief examples below.
 
At Belmar Elementary School in Pittsburgh, students developed and ran a food bank by advertising for and collecting non-perishable food items that they donated to the community once a month. At Pine Richland Middle School in Gibsonia, students planned and administered a cultural awareness night that included interviews of diverse community members and preparation of various foods. Students at Waynesburg Central High School worked with three correctional facilities to provide stationary materials for inmates who were encouraged to communicate with their families.
           
5.1.3. (Grade 3) C. Define the principles and ideals shaping government, including justice, diversity of people and ideas, common good, leadership, and citizenship. In the example cited above, students at Belmar Elementary School served their community by operating a food bank. This type of service-learning gives the teacher an opportunity to introduce the concepts of common good, leadership and citizenship. Further, the teacher and students have an opportunity to explore different types of diversity, including economic diversity, and they are introduced to the concept of justice and how they can help to further it.
 
5.2.6. (Grade 6) C. Explain ways citizens resolve conflicts in society and government. D. Describe the importance of political leadership and public service. E. Identify examples of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. G. Explain the importance of participating in government and civic life. Pine Richland's cultural awareness night provided numerous opportunities to increase student understanding of political leadership, public service, citizen rights and responsibilities, participation and social conflict resolution. Through carefully guided reflection, students can gain an improved understanding of the essential role of ordinary people in small-scale efforts to increase tolerance and build community.
 
5.3.9. (Grade 9) A. Explain the structure, organization, and operation of the local state and national government including domestic and national policy-making. C. Explain how a bill becomes a law on a federal, state, and local level. D. Explain how independent government agencies create, amend and enforce regulatory policies. In Waynesburg, students worked with three separate state and county correctional facilities. This service-learning experience not only provided an excellent opportunity to reinforce the rule of law (5.1.9. J. Explain how law protects individual rights and the common good.), it also presented an opportunity to examine the legislative process for the creation of each facility, the legislative and regulatory processes that determine how the facilities function and the local-state-national cooperation that characterizes the criminal justice system.   
 
5.4.12. (Grade 12) A. Analyze the impact of international economic, technological, and cultural developments on the government of the United States. High school students could research the path of their clients as they help at a food bank, English tutorial center or second hand store. International crises lead to influxes of refugees, and urban non-profits are often the first point of contact for new arrivals. Actually meeting international refugees gives students an enhanced awareness of cultural diversity, concern for problems overseas and an improved understanding of the United States’ geopolitical position.