by Louise Seabrook Knisley
The Montessori School of Anderson, SC has always had a strong emphasis on community service. We know that sending students out into the community to do service work provides unique learning opportunities. Students learn the joys of giving of themselves, the value of volunteerism, a sense of compassion, and a little about the “real world” in the process. It is an important part of the education of the whole child.
About Our Program
The community service program at our school spans all the age groups. At the Primary and Lower Elementary level, children are involved with elderly participants at a nearby adult day-care center. The children visit on a regular basis, decorate windows for seasonal holidays, and make holiday cards and crafts for their elderly friends. The card-making and visits are simple ways and first attempts to help the children focus on doing something for someone else. Beyond that, it’s just fun!
At the Upper Elementary level, children function more independently. Fourth-year students do an in-house service project after Christmas. They go once a week to the Primary students or listen to the Primary students read. Having older children work with younger children fits nicely with the Montessori principle of peer learning. The children write about their work and meet as a group to discuss their experiences.
During their fifth year, students begin going into the community on a weekly basis to do service work. Students visit and work with special-needs children at a local child-development center. Sixth-year students help pack and deliver meals for the Meals on Wheels program once a week. They also make personalized birthday cards for Meals on Wheels recipients. Seventh-and eight-year students tutor children in Head Start classes each week.
In addition to weekly service work, students take part in several one-time service projects during the school year. In late fall Middle School students and their teacher help winterize the homes of senior citizens by covering their windows with plastic. Just prior to the Christmas holidays, each classroom chooses and completes a holiday-related project, such as “adopting” a needy family or having a toy drive. In winter older students collect and distribute personal-care products to shelters for the homeless. In spring Upper Elementary students assist their Special Needs friends during our county’s Special Olympics event.
Development of the Community Service Program
Developing and refining the community service program for our school has been one of the joys of my teaching career and of my life. Community service has always been my passion. It is a passion which I have been allowed to share with the students at our school as Community Service Coordinator. My background as a maters-level social worker as well as a trained Montessori teacher has enabled me to assume this role. Social work contacts with community-based service agencies have made it easy to create opportunities for the students to do volunteer work. Teaching experience in the classroom at most levels has allowed me to help the children make sense of their experiences and to track their growing awareness of the needs of others.
Just as the development of the child is a work in progress, so too is our community-service program. With feedback from the students, staff, and the community, new projects are conceived and put into action. With feedback from the children, we add new dimensions to the program and find new ways to “hook” children on the idea of serving others.
Benefits of Community Service
I am constantly amazed and gratified by the positive effects that serving others has on the children. The depths of their compassion is awe-inspiring. It is always surprising to learn how much community service means to them. Many children tell me that the day they work with special-needs children or deliver Meals on Wheels is their favorite day of the week. Children let me know that they finished all their work early just so they can read in the Primary classrooms. Students shed tears at the end of the school year wondering if they will ever see their favorite special-needs child again. Older students become inspired to do summer volunteer work following visits to local service agencies.
Think about how community service must affect a child’s growing self-esteem. For a child to KNOW, without a doubt, that his or her work is important sends a powerful message to that child. How awesome it is for a child to know that what he or she is doing, whether packing meals for delivery at Meals on Wheels or reading to a child at Head Start, is having a positive effect on another person’s life.
These child volunteers instinctively know that their work is important. Of course, the children often hear many positive comments about their work from grown-ups at the agencies where they serve. My own comments are usually directed toward possible ways that their work affects others. However, it is not the words they hear that make the difference. These children FEEL the importance of their work on a different level, from within themselves, instinctively, without being told. They just know. It is amazing to watch.
Promoting Volunteerism
One very practical reason for a community-service program is to promote the idea of volunteerism. In this age of federal cutbacks and “me first-ism,” we must encourage our children to care enough about those less fortunate to become involved. community service gives young students the opportunity to nurture their natural sense of compassion and to experience the joys of giving of oneself. children are capable of appreciating and integrating compassion and joy into their very character and being. They become willing helpers.
Community service gives students the opportunity to learn about the real world. They learn that some people don’t have enough to eat, BUT there is an agency like Meals on Wheels that helps to feed them. They learn that children of a different socioeconomic status or color are still children and need the same things all children need to grow into healthy adults. They learn that the elderly and those with physical or mental challenges are not to be feared or pitied.
Students learn that their own presence can make a difference in someone’s day or in someone’s life. They learn that a smile and handshake can brighten a lonely elderly person’s day. They learn that they can be a positive role model for a child who has few positive role models in his life. They learn that community service is fun. They learn that helping others feels good inside.
We believe that or program has a lasting impact on students. Some students who are presently participating in community service plan to do volunteer work in the summer. Others tell us that they plan to continue to volunteer after they graduate from our school. Our program makes a difference!
Louise Seabrook Knisley is Community Services Coordinator at the Montessori School of Anderson, SC. She has a Masters degree in Social Work and is a certified Montessori teacher who has taught at various levels.
