By Jared Sage
In a school that prides itself on progressive values, social justice, and doing good outside the classroom, one would think Little Red Elisabeth Irwin High School would have a program in which community service work was mixed into the high school experience. However LREI has no such program, instead counting on its students to generate their own service activities in the community. The result is that, compared to other high schools, as well as our own vision for our what we want to accomplish, LREI falls behind in its role in the community. All members of the community suffer from this lack of policy. Instead, LREI should require its students to log a certain number of community service hours over their four years in high school.
Many feel that forcing students to take leadership in extracurricular work goes against the progressive spirit of the school that emphasizes self-driven desire to do work. LREI prefers that students accomplish work in the community without being told how and when this work should be done. Instead of trying to accomplish the most amount of work possible, LREI would prefer instead that students take ownership of their role in helping the developing agency.
But when it comes to community service, putting the focus on the students instead of the work is misplaced. In many cases students lack resources as well as the support to find organizations and opportunities that would benefit from their efforts. While self-motivation is ideal, in practical reality it is insufficient. At the end of the day motivation does not count as much as straightforward giving and doing the job.
LREI has become known for activism and engagement in the world beyond the classroom. LREI makes clear in its mission statement that “by the time LREI students graduate, they are ready to make their marks on their university campuses because they have learned to be active citizens in their school, city and global communities.” The school believes that once we finish our high school education we are ready to make even bigger impacts in the world. Surprisingly in this realm there is a gap between the mission statement and the reality. Elisabeth Irwin High School is committed to making sure its students have an awareness of social problems that are prevalent in our local area. Often, awareness-building discussions are held about real-world problems, but rarely do these discussions get turned into action. Students are encouraged but not instructed to go out and do specific activities such as serving in soup kitchens, cleaning local parks, and helping the elderly. The result is that very few LREI students actually spend time involved in these activities and lose a very crucial learning experience that can be beneficial to both the students and those they might help.
A standard policy for community service is not difficult to construct. Many other New York City high schools have programs that require students to commit to a certain number of hours as a graduation requirement. For example the Beacon School requires kids to do fifty hours of community service in order to graduate. These students do not feel burdened by the requirement, which can be done in only a year if a student so chooses. The support they receive from faculty at school goes a long way to make the projects valuable to students and the community. These students go out into the community and make a demonstrable difference.
Many LREI students show an interest in outside service. LREI Cares, an X-block run predominantly by students, has high involvement, but encounters difficulty keeping students outside of school hours. Junior Natalie Goncher, the leader of LREI Cares, said that there are around 30 kids in the X-block, but only around 12 to 15 show up to events that take place outside of school. Kids have shown a passion to be part of such efforts, but when not required to attend larger events most don’t show up. LREI Cares has done a good job in setting up the framework; what’s needed is to get the students out in the community.
However, we as students must hold up our end. Because we just have an interest in learning about the problem does not mean we have done anything yet. If we the students don’t take ownership of actually fixing the problems then we are doing no good.
LREI has made its values clear, but as it is we do not live up to our mission. With many kids already feeling burdened and stressed by academics and extracurriculars, we could create a structure for students to exercise leadership in the community. Kids would be able to work with their friends and feel a sense of support that many need when approaching a new area of interest. We would not only be helping out our immediate community but we as students would expand our knowledge of the world.