Service-learning

Students have long been taught that, as adults, they must contribute to society in a meaningful way and for the common good. It’s an important sentiment, and one that many students take to heart. It can be difficult, though, for students to truly understand and appreciate such lessons in civic responsibility when they don’t have the opportunity to actually experience these lessons firsthand. As a result, increasing numbers of schools and extracurricular programs have instituted service-learning projects as part of the curriculum.

In college and graduate school, fledgling teachers learn about classroom management, different types of instructional methods, and lots of other pedagogical tools to help prepare them for life in their own classrooms. There are various situations that can crop up in the classroom, however, for which teachers have little or no preparation. School violence, drug and alcohol abuse by students (or parents), and divorce are a few issues that some teachers may have to address at some point in their careers.