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Community service is a mandatory part of the high school curriculum in Ontario, Canada. My sons volunteered at helping seniors - doing yardwork at their homes, cleaning eaves troughs, cutting grass, raking, washing windows - any physical task too taxing for the older folk. Because they did it for free, it helped seniors with physical limitations and limited incomes to maintain their homes and lifestyles for a longer period of time.
Spirituality is connected with theism and atheism etc. It knows no boundaries in relation to individuals and their preferred positions.
It is not obligated to being assigned only to the religious or the non religious and if individuals do not feel they are being spiritual by donating their time to help their community, that really doesn't matter.
The idea of spirituality is not to turn it on an off. Simply leave it running.
Having given some thought to the OP and reading some of the good answers, I think my advice would be to ask the class what kind of society they would prefer to live in, a dog eat dog scramble for what you get and keep a lookout to see that it is not taken away or a society in which effort is cooperative and everyone helps and can expect help from people concerned about him as an individual.
Then quote attributed to Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Some people view environmentalism as religious or spiritual, I view it as common sense. Either way, having a healthy appreciation for our land, H2O, and air could never be a bad thing.
Being practical and viewing life practically may be love without the emotion. Spirituality is practicality with the loving-kindness emotion.
One can do good things for practical purposes and one can also think it practical to take advantage of overtly stupid people and thereby help them to part with their money.
Being practically spiritual has to do with the intention of the individual in regard to community service.
It is interesting that a positive term - "Community Service" is given negative connotations through being made into a punishment.
I think the OP is right to investigate ways of changing the way people see their community and service and place a more balanced spin on the concept. Change the way people see themselves in relation to community and service.
when my kids were middle school age one of the best projects the schools ever had them do was to pick a name from a list of "inspirational people" provided, learn about that person's life and how they inspired others, present to the group or class why they picked this person and what they find inspirational about their life, there was even an event where they dressed up like the character, and the parents had to go around and ask them questions to try and figure out who they were. This project went on most of the year. It included the kids selecting music that related to this persons' life. Making art that related to this person. Writing a story about meeting this person and interviewing them.
This was so good because the boys got to pick their own "hero", and invariably they were able to identify with that person. It was amazing what they came out with. For years afterward my son has talked about Nelson Mandela because of that project. He still does. He is now 28. amazing. Kids and young people dream big, it is important to have a positive focus for that.
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 06-10-2015 at 04:30 PM..
Also it is important for parents to take the young people seriously. one family listened to their 7 year old son when he said to his parents, upon seeing a homeless person sleeping in a doorway, "I am going to buy that man a blanket and give it to him" which the boy did. He went on to spend his allowance buying blankets and food to give to homeless people in his town. this all came from the kid, but his parents took his concerns and feelings seriously, listened to him, and drove him around town to do this. He continued to do this for many years, other kids got involved, other families in the community participated.
if it's something the young people can come up with on their own, they will have more buy-in and more enthusiasm. I would ask them, who would you like to help? how can we help? what are your ideas for projects? who do you admire? who has helped people? why do you admire them? let them come up with it, they will amaze you
I'd ask the kids what it means to them. I'd ask them to think of the other people living on their block, and what those people might need.
As for the spirituality, I'd ask them what their religion teaches them about doing for others. And if they don't have a religion, I'd ask them whether their parents or anyone in their lives has said about doing for others.
Community Service has become part of the pre college rat race with much greater expectations for young people today than when us middle-aged folks and retirees were young.
Yes, although there is some dissent, depend on who you talk to about it, concerning how important this really is. From what I've heard recently, many higher educational institutions are getting wise to the fact that kids often pad their CV's with volunteer work just to make it look good, and these institutions either don't care or would want to see some kind of substantive and genuine volunteering that doesn't look like a checkmark item.
My wife and I volunteered along with her kids when they were in high school, for hospice. Most of that time, beyond preliminary training, was preparing food for patients in a hospice facility, as well as some home care assistance, such as watching a terminally ill patient while the main caregiver took a break. I was a nice family experience but personally I found it way less enriching and meaningful than I expected it to be. Yes, there were a couple of instances where I really connected with dying people and felt I made a difference in their end of life experience, but the reality is that most of the time I was spoon feeding people that were so checked out on morphine that I doubt they knew I was even there. Even for me, the motivation to do more of this is based in some sense that my time is really impactful, and the fact that so many people don't take proper advantage of hospice, instead fighting way too long to deny the inevitable and then coming, not in their final months, but their final days ... too little, too late.
If this is true for me it's probably 10 times as true for idealistic young people. They want to feel they're accomplishing something.
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