Navy blue and white. The colonel. Bagels. These are all Parker staples, but perhaps there’s nothing more Parkeresque than wasting time and calling it service. Certain May Term projects and Civic Lab groups wear a righteous facade but don’t actually do anything to serve the community. In a school educating some of the wealthiest children in the city, learning to give back should be a priority. However, certain students show selfish disregard for their community by doing low commitment self-improvement projects instead of impactful service work.
When it comes to wasting time, nothing will beat out May Term for first place. Though many students actually spend time volunteering or organizing projects to benefit the community, others simply do nothing for the whole month. Projects like “food tours” to learn about Chicago food culture, or “nutrition-themed may term” where a student goes to the gym every day do absolutely nothing for community impact. Groups shouldn’t just hold one 30-minute bake sale to sell cookies to the Parker community. But many do. There is a simple way to fix this: the vetting process. If every May Term had to be explained in-person to a panel of adults who aren’t afraid to ask the hard-hitting questions, we’d have so fewer wasteful “projects” for May Term.
The junior year Civic Lab is supposed to be an extension of the US History course where Parker students work to better their community. Despite this, it’s unclear whether Civic Lab is there just to educate students rather than actually better the community. At Parker, service days have become more about having less class time that day, and less about the service. There were five service days this year, intended for students to gain hands-on service experience in communities, yet it was often met with groans and rolled eyes. Further, there aren’t enough days to make consistent community improvement, so Civic Lab almost feels like a way to make students feel better about their (lack of) civic engagement.
Another problem with Civic Labs is that they often devote very little time into making an impact. The Food Justice Civic Lab spent one day looking at Lincoln Park food options for their price ranges and later buying fruits and donuts for themselves to eat back at school. The LGBTQ+ rights-themed Civic Lab for juniors last year spent most of their time touring LGBTQ+ shelters and listening to speakers who work in furthering LGBTQ+ rights. They didn’t actually volunteer. They didn’t actually make an impact. They just listened to people who did. Civic Lab is meant to be an extension of the classroom, wherein we build upon learning and turn it into action. But when certain Civic Labs are preorganized to exclude any type of volunteer work, how can we claim that we’re teaching students to volunteer?
Transforming Civic Lab into a fully service based program would have an echo impact within the school. It would inspire students to continue service work outside of school and give them motivation for their May Term projects. Instead of arriving at May Term without the experience nor desire to volunteer, Civic Lab would have shown them how fun and fulfilling community service can actually be.
While some teachers lead amazing and impactful Civic Lab projects, the design of the system (limited number of service days, large groups) can make planning difficult. Thus, we propose an idea which works within the Civic Lab and May Term frameworks.
Instead of teacher led Civic Lab groups, individuals or small groups of students would decide their own topic and volunteer site for service days. Each student or group has an advisor (like May Term) who helps them look for an organization, communicate, and troubleshoot. Civic Lab block time would be used to meet with Civic Lab advisors and plan service days. This system would teach students initiative and communication skills as early as freshman year and would allow them to serve the community in ways they’re passionate about. If students could plan their own Civic Lab service days (and be held to high standards by advisors), Civic Lab would feel less like a chore and more like a meaningful passion project.
For students who are not ready to plan with an organization or have transportation restraints, they could participate in service-based projects within the school, such as peer support groups, decorating the school, or writing thank you notes to maintenance and cleaning crew. The point is, this system would give students more autonomy over their civic engagement.
And as for May Term: seniors could ramp up the volunteering they’ve been doing the past few years or try something completely different, as long as it’s based in service. Seniors would also advise incoming 8th graders about the program and meet with groups of Upper Schoolers to present on their experience with Civic Lab. This alternative idea for Civic Lab would bring more value to volunteering within the Parker community because students can make tangible change with their continued commitment to a cause.
“Everything to help, nothing to hinder.” This quote is burned into Parker’s collective conscience, yet we seem to forget what it means. With dysfunctional May Term and Civic Lab frameworks, and a serious attitude problem, it is impossible to expect Parker students to care about community service. If we want students to care about making a difference, we must change the way we approach these programs.
