Interview with Anne Larson, Service-Learning Coordinator, Moorhead School District
25th anniversary interview
Anne Larson has been involved in the service-learning field since the early 1990s as the Service-Learning Coordinator for the Moorhead School District in western Minnesota. She is a regional consultant for the International Service-Learning Exchange and a consultant for the Minnesota Department of Education. She has also written service-learning curriculum for middle school students in a faith-based setting that is being used nationally.
The following is an excerpt from her interview with NYLC.
What message do you give to administrators or teachers to spark their interest in service-learning?
I’ve been giving the same message for years — service-learning is a teaching strategy that really levels the playing field. There are opportunities for every child to succeed and to learn and grow from a well-developed service-learning curriculum. I also talk about the new research; one of my issues is that we may have done a lot of service-learning, but not all of it is that good. So, I use the research to draw the line that doing it well does matter. I use that especially with administrators because that’s what they care about right now; investing in [service-learning] really will make a difference for our students.
The other message is that service-learning is not easy to do — it is much harder than giving a lecture; it takes planning, coordinating, courage, and trusting that students will rise to the occasion. We need to invest in good curriculum because then it will be sustainable; it’s not just a quick thing we’re going to do once. If it’s creative and it’s really good, let’s create something that can last a long time.
