The State of Maryland is unique in requiring students to perform 75 hours of service learning to graduate from high school. Service learning is a "learn by doing" experience that combines community service with academic study, explained Amanda Jonas of the Maryland Student Service Alliance.
Each school system in Maryland has developed its own plan for service learning. The Anne Arundel County Public Schools are using "an infusion approach" that makes service learning part of the curriculum, said Robert Jervis, coordinator of social studies for the county. Students meet the 75-hour requirement by participating in interdisciplinary projects, he said. In 10th grade, for example, students earn 10 hours in language arts, typically through advocacy projects, and 10 hours in science, through environmental projects. Thus service learning is not an add-on, but a "tie-in" to what teachers are already doing, Jervis said.
"For me to buy into it, it has to be tied to the curriculum," said Rochelle Finkelstein, a social studies teacher in Anne Arundel County. Finkelstein finds service learning—with its three components of preparation, action, and reflection—to be "critical thinking at its finest." And, she added, by infusing service learning into the curriculum, "you bypass the nightmare of record keeping," as a school can easily track students' progress toward meeting the requirement as it tracks students' course credits.
Some students, teachers, and community members have objected to the service learning requirement, these Maryland educators acknowledged. The PTAs in Anne Arundel County were initially opposed to the idea, which they saw as "involuntary servitude," Jervis said.
Students have helped turn these attitudes around. When Finkelstein addressed hostile PTA leaders, she had students describe the value of their service learning experiences. This student testimony won over many of the adults.
A handful of students in Anne Arundel County are refusing, out of conviction, to meet the service learning requirement, Jervis said. But by and large, "Kids are the biggest supporters of service learning, because they see what a difference it makes in their lives."