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On the road to education for democracy.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

Democracy is the ongoing work of people to create and recreate the places where they live and the communities that anchor their lives. A democratic society is fundamentally dependent upon an educated and activated citizenry. Community service can be at the core of creating such a citizenry, but may not automatically do so. This paper introduces a team-based approach to service. The model extends the growing research on service-learning, focusing on public work and problem solving as the link between education and preparation for citizenship.

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Community Service And Citizenship

Democracy is the ongoing work of people to create and recreate the places where they live and the communities that anchor their lives. A democratic society is fundamentally dependent upon a citizenry that possesses the capacity and interest to work together as problem solvers and co-producers of public goods (Boyte and Karl 2000). This is difficult in a modern world that rarely teaches the skills of citizenship and devalues public work (Rimmerman 2001; Astin and Astin 2000; Boyte and Karl 1996).

Despite this difficulty, we do have a generation of students who desire to work as citizens (Long 2002; Sullivan 2000; Rimmerman 1997). We also have communities that desperately need them (Weinberg 2000; Nyden et. al 2000). In particular, we have a generation of college students who are interested in service, and who define their commitment to society through that involvement. This is the goods news. More troubling are the motives and world-views behind the renewed commitment to service. The current generation of students is shaped by a series of interweaving paradoxes. They are cynical about politics, but care about social change. They believe that time is a precious commodity not to be wasted, and yet they are willing to devote large amounts of time to activities that matter. Students are not likely to vote or engage in formal political activities. However, they are attracted to community involvements through service (NASS 1999; Walker 2000). A group of undergraduate student leaders recently wrote, "For the most part, we are frustrated with conventional politics, viewing it as inaccessible.... however, we are deeply involved with civic issues through non-traditional forms of engagement ... service is a viable and preferable alternative at this time" (Long 2002:1)."

Service provides both an opportunity and a problem. It can be serve as an entry point for engaging students in democracy, but it can also be a mechanism of retreat. At its worst, service can be driven by cynicism over formal politics and can result in individualized, compartmentalized acts that shield people from the realities of community and rob communities of the well versed and multitalented citizens they need. Too often service disengages students from the community by employing...

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