Service learning is
"a teaching and learning approach that integrates community service with academic study
to enrich learning, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities."
-- Learning in Deed: The Power of Service-Learning for American Schools
(National Commision on Service Learning, 2001)
Beginning in 8th Grade, the CSD curriculum fully integrates community-based, service learning courses within the regular school week. The approach serves three purposes:
- to provide students real-world practice in the skills they're learning in the classroom
- to model the benefits of building ties with and proactively serving the community
- to engender a commitment to life-long learning in each of our students
By maintaining close ties with the Davidson community, including town officials, local residents and business owners, and Davidson College, CSD is able to offer its students placements in a wide array of settings representing disciplines as varied as planning and architecture, the performing arts, local governance, bench and field scientific research, animal husbandry and agriculture, community development and outreach, and conservation and historic preservation.