CATHOLIC EDUCATION IN ALBERTA

Service Learning in Catholic Schools

Catholic schools are different from our public school counterparts.  We have at our roots a mandate to not only educate children but to also help students come into communion and intimacy with Jesus Christ.  This makes the Catholic school truly authentic.  Our Catholic schools want to graduate students who can carry on Christ’s mission in a way that is relevant in their life.

Teachers often struggle with making learning more relevant for their students.  Teachers have the task of making the learning meaningful to students in the places of their everyday lives.  Many teachers try to include some sort of reinforcing experience (field trip, guest speaker, creative projects) as a supplementary activity. Although these activities contribute to student learning, they do not always achieve the type of serving we hope our students will engage in when they leave our schools. The question of how we prepare students to be ready to serve their communities when they graduate is best accomplished by giving them real experiences throughout their school years.  The platform for providing such a school experience in Catholic schools is the use of the service learning activities. 

In Catholic schools, we teach our students to apply academic skills to solving real world issues and linking learning with the needs of the community.  Catholic schools from kindergarten to grade 12 use service projects to benefit the learning process and make a positive contribution to the community.  To make service learning meaningful to our students and beneficial to the education of the whole person, most projects connect to the head, the heart and the hands.  The head is where the students learn about a project in relation to the curriculum. The heart is personalizing the knowledge and thinking critically about the knowledge.  When knowledge is applied and starts changing the way we live and allows us to reach out to our world in an act of service, then our hands are contributing.

 How does one serve in a way that is meaningful for both the participant and the recipient of the service? The service activity must be challenging and relevant to the curriculum and the community.  It should address a practical issue or need in the school or community.   To make the service activity relevant, students need to be integrally involved with choosing the service they will provide.  Students and staff need to work together to make the project successful as a learning and life experience.  In our schools the project will differ from season to season and is different in different communities.  The community food bank or an organization that provides breakfast or lunch for students or food for needy community members are often supported by our Catholic schools.  At Christmas, donations are often collected for local organizations that provide Christmas presents for those in need and some schools collect shoeboxes for overseas.     Local charities are often the recipient of our students’ service projects.  Quite often the project is close to home when a student or family member is suffering.  Many service learning projects are applicable to all students.  These would include homelessness, hunger, injustice, poverty, illiteracy, and exploitation of people.  The opportunity exists to address these problems directly, or indirectly. As students get older, activities often bring the school population together and besides being meaningful they are sometimes fun – shaving heads, making and selling crafts…   Volunteering in the community is also a way older students contribute. By having students involved in service learning, they become challenged in new ways.  Our students learn that they can have a positive impact and influence within their communities.  This helps validate their learning and supports the value Catholic schools bring to the community.

 The relationships and bonds that start to develop through service-learning opportunities sometimes continue outside the parameters of organized school events.  When this happens, Catholic schools are developing future citizens that will help make a world that we would be proud of and follow the example that Christ set for the world.