Answering the Call to Serve

Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities Robert Coles's recent proposal brought the idea of combining classroom study with public service fieldwork to the front pages of The Crimson. Most people on campus probably know little about this trend in education, called Service Learning.

Although it would become my responsibility as a member of the Phillips Brooks House Association (PBHA) Board of Directors to chair the Board's subcommittee on Service Learning, I, too, had only limited awareness of the issue.

At first, I myself was skeptical of the idea. People who talked about Service Learning seemed to love to use the world "reflection." Students would have a chance to reflect on their work and how it related to the issues studied in class. It sounded rather touchyfeely, perhaps more appropriate for FOP trips or roommate procrastochats. But, since many other colleges have put these methods into practice, the PBHA Board attempted to obtain some ideas and suggestions from them.

Harvard faces a situation that is the reverse of most schools when it comes to combining community service and academics. At most colleges and universities, interested faculty create courses that call for some kind of community involvement, and then find agencies where students can volunteer.

At Harvard, while there are already strong student public service structures, there is little in the way of faculty involvement. And even the expansive course catalog lacks courses which offer students the chance to combine their studies and fieldwork.

At PBHA, we recognize that many students would welcome the chance to think about their work in a broader context, stepping back from the day-to-day struggles and joys of public service to examine how it fits into a larger view of society and its problems. Coles has helped us tremendously by offering his time and guidance to the PBHA summer programs. He, and those whom he trained, facilitated weekly reflection sessions for the counselors at the camps.

The resulting response was quite positive. Most importantly, it helped PBHA realize that maintaining a sense of meaning in one's work is a crucial element in remaining motivated in trying to generate change.

Nevertheless, giving volunteers a more rewarding experience is low on the Faculty's priority list. They are wary of the "touchy" and "feely." Previous attempts by esteemed teachers such as Coles, Wiener Professor of Public Policy David T. Ellwood, and Wiener Professor of Social Policy Mary Jo Bain to establish a core class that includes public service have been rejected for lacking the academic rigor appropriate to a course at Harvard.

Yet while the faculty may have viewed such a course as merely a chance for do-gooders to congratulate themselves, Service Learning holds the potential to accomplish much more.

It is time for the Faculty to realize that it is difficult to find a more demanding test for a student than to ask him to apply what he has studied to a real-life situation. Social analysis through books is not very social.

Courses that offer students the chance to gain first-hand exposure to the problem about which they are reading force students to confront ideas critically and with some sense of the consequences these ideas may have on the world.

Service Learning offers the opportunity to try to consummate that elusive marriage of theory and practice--to link the ivory tower to the street, the school and the shelter. Harvard could finally earn all those tax breaks it gets from the city of Cambridge by using its resources to become a more active and contributing citizen of its own community.

At the same time, its students would gain a sense of what it means to be a part of society: not simply to exist, not even simply to try and do what one can to make a difference, but to critically examine the world in which we live and determine our place in it.

Coles is fighting an uphill battle. He is asking this institution to reexamine its traditions and its image of itself, and to join other universities, including Duke, Stanford, and Brown, in offering students a chance to put their book learning to the test.

All of us who have ever wondered why we came to this school, why we pay all this money and what we are going to get out of this four-year expedition should support his efforts and hope that we get the opportunity to see what we can do.

Jeremy Saum '95 is a member of the Phillips Brooks House Association Board of Directors.