This collection of essays by various authors discusses the dilemmas that face those who would educate tomorrow's valuable citizens and describes the day-to-day commitment needed to maintain a community. The book gives guidelines for action through examples of current programs that provide a forum for civic discussion and public consensus on the…

Argues that the theoretical conceptual, methodological, and pedagogical legacies of sociology render it uniquely qualified for integrating service learning into the academic curriculum. Describes the design and development of a pilot program offering a major and a minor in Public and Community Service Studies. (MJP)

This digest addresses the decline in the willingness of U.S. youth to participate in service to the community or nation and suggests service learning as a possible remedy for the decline. There are long-term benefits of service learning: (1) helping to build community support for education; (2) facilitating a closer bond between school, community,…

This paper describes the work of Youth Service California, a state-wide collaboration of public and private organizations that since 1990 has brought the voice of the local youth service field to state level policy and program development. Youth Service California's purpose is the further development of a diverse state movement to increase and…

Experiential education, service learning in particular, offers one pedagogy for teaching democracy. This paper presents a rationale for teaching democracy through service learning and provides general and specific guidelines for accomplishing the goal. Models of service learning are described that teachers can incorporate into classroom…

Maintains that community service-learning, the integration of service with academic skills and content, can positively enhance students' future involvement in the social and political life of their communities. Discusses the historical roots of service in social studies education and analyzes the empirical evidence on student outcomes. (MJP)

This paper explores the implications of an effort to promote service learning in two middle schools in the Palo Alto (California) Unified School District. The schools are grades six through eight with about 1,000 students in each. The paper describes seven service efforts and then analyzes the costs and benefits of these projects. The study…

This document contains 11 papers on researching service learning through a multidisciplinary lens. The following papers are included: "Introduction" (Shelley H. Billig, Andrew Furco); "Stretching to Meet the Challenge: Improving the Quality of Research to Improve the Quality of Service-Learning" (Janet Eyler);…