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  Service Learning & Civic-Engagement
Service Learning Goals!
Antioch University can use your help!

Service Learning Online    Horace Mann, Born May 4, 1796  ardent abolitionist, social reformer,
and visionary educator, was the founding President of Antioch College (1853-59).  
Service learning has its roots in the work of Horace Mann & John Dewey.  Horace Mann founded Antioch University in 1852.  This foundational institution has used service-learning as an integral part of its curriculum for more than one hundred and fifty years.  Those who think service-learning is some "new experimental paradigm," need to do their homework. Thomas Mann struggled to get an education, and through that struggle he saw the need for public education.  It was through his efforts that public education became an American value, and from day one, his vision for public education was absolutely connected to service-learning and civic-engagement.  It was "Mann's driving determination to create a system of effective, secular, universal education in the United States."¹  And he did just that.

 "Applied learning, practical learning, experiential learning…Service-Learning. Call it what you like, its basic meaning has barely changed: students seem to learn best when they are made to see connections between their books and their world. From our nation’s finest universities, to its most underprivileged grade schools, educators throughout the country are adopting Service-Learning programs to inspire community involvement, to strengthen relationships among students, and to teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills more effectively."²  This idea of learning by being connected with the community is part and parcel of American public education from the beginning.  Now, thankfully, more and more schools are getting back to these roots.
      
If Thomas Mann was the founding father, then "John Dewey’s progressive theories of education give it (service-learning and civic engagement) an intellectual heft.  ...nearly all of the components of service-learning--experience as the basis of learning, connections with community life, reflection, and the desirability of democratic as well as content-based learning outcomes--can be found in Dewey. The movement for civic engagement is not just intent, then, on restoring the historic mission of higher education; it aims to do so through an historic theory and pedagogy." ³  John Dewey's ideas about liberal progressive democracy, logic, social and political theory, and ethics, are the cornerstone for the structure of American education.        ⁴ John Dewey (1859-1952) 

        "John Dewey (1859-1952) believed that learning was active and schooling unnecessarily long and restrictive.  His idea was that children came to school to do things and live in a community which gave them real, guided experiences which fostered their capacity to contribute to society."⁵  The institutions of learning which Thomas Mann and John Dewey built, were never designed as ivory tower;, they were designed as practical integrated dynamic institutions which provided quality education for the common man.  Their efforts produced the most exceptional educational system know to man by the time Dewey died in 1952.  It was the best on the planet.  But that was then and this is half a century down the road.
      
It has not been an easy road.  As various social and political experiments have been tried and have failed, our public institutions have begun a slow and tragic decline into mediocrity or worse.  So where do we go from here? As more and more educators, students, parents, institutions, and communities embrace the concepts of active learning, civic-engagement, and interconnectedness... we can retrain our workers, educate our children, and restore a full measure of excellence to our systems of education from kindergarten through higher education.

We need not aim lower, dumb-down curriculum, pass kids though, or dither about with non-starters like uniforms and segregation.  What we must do is make education the national priority it was in 1952 and redirect our energies and efforts towards doing what Americans have always done when faced with a tough situation.  Pull up our socks, roll up our sleeves, and get the job done.  We must fund our schools as an investment in our future, and reject the esoteric fantasy of school as some ivory tower for the elite.

There is no reason to rewrite the past or deny our heritage. Instead we can learn from our mistakes and appreciate what we did right.  We can build on this foundation while we find our way home.  Universal public education, including higher education for those so-inclined, should be a right of passage in our American journey.  We have identified the problem, now we must refocus our priorities and get the job done.  It is essential that we begin soon. 
         Call city councilmen, mayors, legislators, representatives, congressmen, and let them know where you stand.  

Timothy Martin Flanagan, associate editor with The Wordsmith Collection.

1.  http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/horace.html
2.  http://www.usfcollab.usf.edu/researchdetails.cfm?researchID=129
3.  http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/other/engagement/Journal/Issue1/Daynes.jsp
4.  http://socsci.colorado.edu/SOC/SI/si-dewey-bio.htm
5.  http://www.wilderdom.com/experiential/JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html

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