The News Hole
Snow Shoveling = Service Learning for Maryland Kids
The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) announced on Feb. 12 that all the days students are missing from school shouldn’t have to be a complete wash—it’s trying to turn the snowstorm into a “service learning” opportunity for the state’s schoolkids by encouraging local school districts to offer service-learning credits to students who participated in clearing snow from streets, sidewalks, churches, and neighbors’ homes. All students in Maryland are required to complete 75 service-learning hours in order to graduate high school.
City schools are taking the MSDE’s suggestion, according to a posting on the Baltimore City Public Schools web site. Students can apply for service-learning credits as long as they were not paid for their shoveling and can get a community sponsor to sign off on the hours they worked. Students will have to complete a “reflection sheet” on their experience, which they have to turn into their school’s service-learning coordinator.
Click here to download a pdf copy of the city school system’s service-learning handbook.
