Teaching Sustainability and Stewardship through Service

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Originally appears in the Winter 2019 issue.

FOR MANY MIDDLE schoolers, the prospect of school just doesn’t hold a candle to the enticements and temptations of friendships, video games, and after-school activities. Yet, at The Exploris School in Raleigh, North Carolina, there is one day a week when students are excited about learning: every Thursday after we clean up from lunch, students wiggle in their chairs and ask impatiently, “When does service learning start?!”

In seventh grade, we offer service learning electives twice a year: once in the fall, and once in the spring. On the day we announce the course choices for the season, students bubble with excitement as they read the descriptions. They frantically make eye contact with their friends as they write down their top choices onto the tiny white note cards that will determine their fate. We collect and analyze their choices as we sort them into groups balanced by both interest and personality. In the days that follow, the suspense is tangible, and when we finally announce our service learning groups, students simmer with anticipation as they wait to hear in which groups they have been placed. While not every student is fully satisfied with the final outcome, each is nonetheless excited, and for the remainder of the season, their expectations run high.