School Based Community Service: What We Know from Research and Theory

This article briefly reviews three arguments for the role of service in an educational program (to stimulate learning and social development, to reform society and preserve democracy, and to halt separation of youth from the wider society. Our brief historical review suggests some of the arguments for the role of service in an educational program - as a way to stimulate learning and social development, as a means of reforming society and preserving a democracy, and as an antidote to the separation of youth from the wider community. The term youth community service represents a wide array of programs operating under an equally wide array of assumptions about their impact. While advocates of youth service agree at least superficially on a general rationale for its adoption, there are differences in what they emphasize, and these differences carry over to the types of service programs they advocate. At the risk of oversimplification, advocates can be divided into those who stress the reform of youth and those who stress the reform of education.