DODDS-Pacific drops community
service graduation requirement
By Jan Wesner Childs,
Seoul bureau
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Pacific high school students no
longer are required to do community service before they graduate.
The community service program, “Service Learning,” received
praise from some parents and educators, but others complained it was too difficult to
administer.
The service learning curriculum, which required students to complete
20 hours of community service before graduation, was introduced at all Department of
Defense Dependents Schools in the ‘98-99 school year.
Students who are seniors this year would have been the first required
to complete the program before graduation, and those who didn’t could have been
prevented from graduating.
Service learning, already in place at many stateside civilian
schools, was touted as a learning tool that would create lifetime volunteers and make
teen-agers more aware of the world. Teachers had big ideas for service learning. Some
wanted to send students to work with the poor in places such as the Philippines and India.
But from the beginning there were questions about how to keep track
of the hours and how to ensure students met the requirement, especially when they
constantly are moving in and out of DODDS schools.
“Teachers had to spend a great deal of their time completing
supervisory tasks associated with service learning, such as reading reports, tabulating
and verifying hours,” said Georgia Watters, a guidance counselor at Ernest J. King
High School on Sasebo Naval Base in southern Japan.
Last year, Watters said, the school asked the organizations where
students volunteered to keep track of the hours. But teachers still ultimately were
responsible for processing the paperwork.
Most of the community service projects involved beach clean-ups,
volunteering at on-base organizations or compiling a history of the school or base.
Peggy Bullion, DODDS Pacific schools education support manager, said
one reason the program was dropped was because it was redundant. Bullion said there were
other programs in the schools that included community service.
“There were very few cases of students who did not complete the
hours,” Bullion said.
Community service hours still will be placed on a student’s
transcript because it can help them get into college and because they might transfer to a
stateside high school requiring service learning.
“Colleges and universities like to see that,” said Bruce
Jeter, superintendent of the DODDS Korea school district. “That is a very valuable
course to have gotten credit for or to show on the transcripts.”
Seoul American High School had an exhibition in the auditorium last
year with information on community groups and other volunteer projects for kids to sign
up. Jeter said the program was popular among students at the school.
Carol McCracken, who has two sons at Seoul American, said she was sad
to see the program go.
“It just got your kids involved in giving back to the
community,” she said, adding that she’ll encourage her kids to continue doing
community service.
Master Sgt. Robert Mohler, stationed at Iwakuni Marine Corps Air
Station, Japan, also said he thought service learning was a good way to get teens involved
in the community. His 16-year-old son, Ryan, participated in the program last year.
“I volunteered to read to younger kids so I could earn my hours,
and because I like working with kids,” Ryan said.
Ryan doesn’t think making community service mandatory was a good
idea for DODDS, and said he’ll continue to volunteer even if it’s not required.
“I think people should do this because they want to, not because
they have to,” he said.
Greg Tyler and Tim Flack contributed to this report.
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