Written by David Plesac, Dean of Students
A common reaction I get when I invite the students at Fegely Middle School to go out on a Friday afternoon and help me with Community Service is, “But I didn’t do anything wrong!” Even at their relatively young age, they have learned to associate community service with punishment. To reverse this sentiment, we are working hard to help them realize a sense of pride in the community and that not only is it the right thing to do but you can have fun while doing it.
Each week, I randomly select a group of about 12 students to come out with me in the afternoon on a Friday. It is a diverse group of kids from the same grade made up of an equal number of boys and girls. It is nice to watch kids from different social circles come together and develop a sense of camaraderie while working together to complete our task. I reserve a mini bus from the bus barn and away we go.
Middle school is a critical time in the lives of our children (and often a trying time for us as parents!). Not only do they have the demands of a rigorous academic schedule, but they are also figuring out what is means to become an adult. They are at an age where they are developing the morals, attitudes and beliefs that will carry them through the rest of their lives.
To help them in this process, it is incumbent upon us as schools, parents and communities to not only help them with traditional academics, but also to help nurture and cultivate this transition into adulthood. To this end, Fegely stresses five critical values that serve as a reminder and a benchmark of the ideals we are striving to reach. These values are: Responsibility, Compassion, Fairness, Respectfulness, and Honesty.
Putting these critical values into action is the goal of our community service. Talking about these values is a good start, but it’s not enough. Kids need to experience it firsthand. They also need to see us as adults modeling these values so that it becomes something they want to do.
So far this year, while the weather had been nice, we have visited several of the local parks and searched the grounds for trash. But it’s not just all work. I make sure we have put aside some time for a little fun. The intent is to reverse the original thoughts they may have had about community service being a punishment and replace it with a sense of pride and the realization that it can be fun as well.
By far, the highlight of the season was our trip to South Haven Fire Department, where we helped the firefighters clean the station and wash the trucks. All the kids who went are begging to go back. In the future, not only will we continue to visit local parks, but we have planned visits to the retirement home as well. They should have a deeper understanding of the critical value Compassion after such a trip.
The community service initiative here at Fegely is designed to give real world experiences with the critical values of Compassion, responsibility, fairness, respectfulness, and honesty. Creating these experiences for them while modeling the desired behavior is an important step towards helping our kids become responsible adults.