Introduction to Service-Learning

John Knox Christian SchoolFriday December 3, 2010

M. Meinema: Principal and COO

What is the role of service in the life of a Christian?

So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove that you are my disciples. (John 13:34-35 NLT)

What is service-learning?

Service-learning is learning how to live life in faithful obedience to Christ both now and in the future. Service learning consists of two equally important and totally interwoven components: learning and service.

Effective service learning requires that both components be of high quality. Students are learning in order to serve and are serving in order to learn. It is a reciprocal relationship. It is not as much a pedagogical method as it is a mentality that sees Christ’s command to love as he loved woven throughout the curriculum we teach and the outcomes for which we aim.

Called to Serve

Through his death, Christ reclaimed a fallen creation. All things, once again, are inscribed with the words “Set Apart as Holy to the Lord”(Zech 14:20) . Now he calls us to serve. God also calls students of John Knox Christian School to serve, both now and in their adult lives. Serving God and serving others in love is the Christian life.

JKCS Vision Statement

John Knox Christian School is a prayerful, thriving, energetic school community where a Christ-centred education equips our students

to lead a life of Christian service.

Service of God and others is central to the vision of our school. We cannot automatically expect graduates of JKCS to have the mind of servant-leaders and to take up a life of service using their gifts if they have not had a chance to do that in their schooling. As Nicholas Woltersdtorff put it:

“It is nothing but a pious wish and a grossly unwarranted hope that students trained to be passive and non-creative in school will suddenly, upon graduation, actively contribute to the

formation of Christian culture.”

Students need to learn by serving as well as learning to serve. They need to know that this service is not a few acts of charity, but is a way of life. The school, as a place of education, is uniquely positioned to play a role in this learning, taking its place in partnership with the home and the church.

Service to be at the heart of what we do at JKCS

I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand

Another reason for service learning comes in the fact that hands-on learning is considered to be a very sound and desirable pedagogy. A curriculum woven through by service helps to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Learning through service and for service provides the compelling answer to that perennial question: “Why do we have to learn this stuff?” Service learning can help translate book lessons into life lessons!

A Two-Way Street!

The relationship between service and learning is reciprocal. Not only can the service enhance the learning, but the learning can also enhance the service by giving the students the rational for such service. Service in this context becomes more than just a charitable act. Both the provider of the service and the recipient of the service are changed by a service learning experience. At times one may wonder “who is serving whom”!

Making Meaning

Service-learning can not only give meaning to learning, but it can give meaning and identity to the learner. Research shows that service–learning programs have a positive impact on the social growth, psychological development and moral judgement of students. (Gartke p. 5) Steve Korthoven talks about this as “developing habits of righteousness”.

Empowering our Students

Service learning can also bring meaning to students as they seek answers to questions about their identity and purpose in the world. Service-learning is learning as community, in community and for community. It empowers students to make a difference in a world that is filled with cynicism, pessimism, resignation and apathy. It says to them that they do have a place in this world and that they can make a difference. It helps them to experience the confession that “our world belongs to God!”

It Impacts You Too!

One last point. Service learning can also empower teachers as they experience another way they actually make a difference in the lives of their students and in their global community. The encouragement gained from seeing students engaged in meaningful service to God and others cannot be underestimated. Added to this is the encouragement gained by seeing different gifts of the students come to the fore in the various service-learning opportunities.

Goals of Service-Learning

To unfold the basis and implications of a Christian vision of life and to develop and apply responsibly the concepts, abilities and creative gifts that enable students to contribute positively to God’s Kingdom..

(Harro VanBrummelen, CEA Convention 2002)

Breaking that Down

– Assisting students to see the relevance of the academic subject to the world that they live in.

– Exposing students to societal brokenness and injustices and to empower them to seek remedies .

– Developing a richer context for student learning, enhancing it by joining theory with experience and thought with action.

– Giving students greater responsibility for their own learning and to reverse disengagement from schooling.

– Connecting the students to a global community, giving them both a sense of belonging and a sense of responsibility to that community.

Goals of Service-Learning

To assist and encourage students to unwrap their personal gifts and abilities and to use them effectively and generously not only for the benefit of themselves but also to serve God, neighbour and society.

(Harro VanBrummelen, CEA Convention 2002).

Breaking that Down

– Giving students the opportunity to do important and necessary work, becoming “agents of change”.

– Establishing lifelong habits of righteousness.– Filling unmet needs in the community through direct service

which is meaningful and necessary.– Enabling students to help others, give of themselves, and enter

into caring relationships with others, thus developing their sense of belonging in the community of which they are a member.( A priority—Need to achieve high standards of citizenship. . .)

– Developing student competence and skills which go beyond the academic to include leadership, communication and organizational skills.

Goals of Service-Learning

To encourage and empower staff as they see students learning and making a difference.

Our Goal at JKCS

Curriculum based service is our primary goal. We are a school. Our primary task is not to be a service organization, but to educate students for and enable them in a life of service. We must strive to have our service and our learning woven together

So, now what?

• We are not starting from scratch! We do a lot of this integrated service-learning already (especially with our commitment to the Good Neighbour Campaign). This will need to be coordinated and shared.

• Each grade will need to begin to identify places in that grade’s curriculum that best lend themselves to service-learning. Collaborative planning will result in a more interdisciplinary approach to service learning and it may even necessitate the administration taking a closer look at the structures (timetabling, teacher assignments etc) of our school.

• These are exciting, but admittedly scary times. We will need to be patient while remaining faithful to our task of discipling young people. God will remain faithful. To paraphrase the Psalmist, if the Lord builds this school, our labour will not be in vain!

Our Next After-school Growth Meeting

January 20, 2011

• We will look at examples of Service-Learning projects to inspire ideas for JKCS.

• We will begin to map what kinds of service is already happening here at JKCS.

• Present service projects will be required to add a “learning” component.

• We will begin to look at “reflection” as a tool for learning with regards to serving.