Recently, I attended the Macalester College celebration and was struck by the number of community based and service learning opportunities touted as powerful for their students. In fact, there was little mention of conventional educational practices of courses, classes and lectures. Mentioned were international experiences with businesses, embassies, human rights, peace organizations, world hunger and local experiences with environment, law, government, education, community service, medical and many nonprofit groups. Students spoke of the life-changing influence of such experiences.
Of course, similar activities are available to K-12 schools but not used nearly to the extent possible by most school districts who have little recognition of the power of service, community based and experiential learning. The reluctance to adopt such practices has given rise to the need for alternatives and is a major factor in our calls for choice.