Supporting The National Learn And Serve Challenge

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the benefits of service-learning as a teaching strategy to effectively engage youth in the community and classroom, and to support the goals of the National Learn and Serve Challenge. I want to thank my colleagues from the National Service Caucus, Mr. Platts, Ms. Matsui, Mr. Ehlers, Mr. Price, and Mr. Kennedy, for introducing this important resolution.

Service-learning is an educational model that can be used from kindergarten to the university level across all subjects and disciplines. By integrating learning in the classroom with real world challenges in the community, service-learning can make school assignments come alive for typically disconnected students. By affording students the opportunity to apply their lessons to solving real problems in their surrounding communities, we are not only engaging our students, but we are also helping to improve our local neighborhoods.

Research has shown long-term positive impacts associated with service-learning, including increased academic achievement, enhanced school engagement, positive civic attitudes, and improved social and personal skills. Students who complete a service project that has a direct tie to their curriculum are able to develop better problem-solving skills and have a better understanding of cognitive complexities. Studies have also shown a connection between service-learning and higher grades and test scores.

Service-learning is also a successful strategy for keeping students engaged in school and makes students less likely to drop out. More than just community service, service-learning applies classroom skills by asking students to investigate a challenge in their community, plan solutions, take action through service, and then reflect on the experience and the results. Students who are engaged in this process become more involved in their studies and in their neighborhoods. In fact, studies have shown that service-learners have better school attendance and more acceptable school behaviors than their peers.

Service-learning also promotes positive civic attitudes and fosters involvement in our democracy. Research suggests that students involved in service-learning opportunities build self-confidence, leadership skills, and increase their tolerance of others. Further studies have also shown that high school students that participated in service-learning are more likely to vote 15 years after their experience than those that did not participate.

Finally, students who are exposed to service-learning build important social and personal skills. Service-learning serves as an on-ramp to civic engagement for a lifetime. Students who are involved with service develop strong ethics and a sense of social responsibility. Participation in those programs has also been shown to reduce negative behaviors such as those that lead to arrest or pregnancy.

In order to call attention to the many benefits of service-learning, the National Learn and Serve Challenge will take place October 5-11. This week-long nationwide celebration of service will raise awareness of service-learning and foster collaborative partnerships between local schools, institutions of higher education, and their surrounding communities. The organization has set an ambitious goal of having 5 million college students and 50 percent of K-12 schools engaged in meaningful service by 2010.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I express my support for the National Learn and Serve Challenge, and I encourage more schools to take advantage of the many benefits service-learning can have on our students and our communities. I urge my colleagues to pass this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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