This article by Fran Smith did my heart some good! Although quite a few service-learning projects were highlighted, the one that stands out to me involved some high school students who did far more than was asked of them. When they discovered that their community partner school didn't have a library, they took matters into their own hands and built one! My favorite paragraph is this one: "Teachers encouraged the kids to think modestly -- collect old books, raise a few dollars to buy wood and brackets, and recruit parents to build shelves. But the students, far less tolerant than their elders about school-system inequities, insisted that Vaughn deserved better. The kids raised nearly $40,000 in cash and donations of books and furniture. Their success (or perhaps the media coverage it attracted) persuaded the school district to pay for a part-time librarian, and Vaughn's library opened eighteen months after the students set to work." Read the entire article here at Edutopia.org.
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