Service learning is often offered as a way to produce students who care, and who will stay involved once they graduate. There are many definitions of service learning, but generally it refers to an integration of programs and courses in a university with service projects in the community. There is a blending of instruction and action, where insight into abstract concepts and course material is provided by a connection to the larger world. A student can come to understand the meaning of poverty, for example, by helping people seek public aid, or helping them find housing and a nutritious meal. There is strong documented evidence that service learning works.
Service learning builds a bridge between the public and the private.
The sociologist C. Wright Mills once wrote about the importance of translating private troubles into clear public issues. The reason for doing so, he understood, was that if people believe their problems stem from their own private circumstances, they can become paralyzed by a sense of impotence, rage, and cynicism. But private troubles can have public causes, causes that can be addressed collectively. Serving others, understanding their concerns, trying to help them allows people to gain the knowledge they need to avoid such cynicism. It is through the connection between the classroom and the community, through service to others, that students can apply knowledge critically and analytically to understand the world in which they live.