What's happened to the "learning" part of service learning?

To receive a Maryland high school diploma, students are expected to complete seventy-five hours of service learning. According to MSDE, service learning experiences should be linked to academic learning, benefit the community and require students to actively reflect on their experience. In some schools throughout Baltimore City, students are given service learning hours for experiences that meet few, if any, of the criteria detailed by MSDE. I am most concerned with the lack of learning associated with the activities that students are completing for service learning hours.

At my school, students are given service learning hours for washing boards or putting chairs on top of desks. In October, during breast cancer awareness month, a teacher led a campaign to raise money and promised students 3 hours of service learning for each dollar donated. What are students learning from this? That they can “buy” their way out of civic responsibilities. Students now have a warped idea of what service learning is and schools are perpetuating this by continuing to grant students hours for activities that meet none of the criteria established by MSDE.

Service learning needs to be revamped in the city. We owe it to our students to ensure that they are having meaningful experiences outside of the classroom. The article I have attached describes how Baltimore City College has infused service learning into their classes. If each class made service learning a component of the class the experiences would hopefully be meaningful and should definitely be linked to academics. I think that schools should consider making service learning a requirement in classes.
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr187.shtml