This journal article describes a number of school community partnership projects that involve service learning; it then provides helpful hints for organizing this kind of projects in schools. Exemplar projects, including neighbourhood mapping, study of local ecology, environmental testing, and letter writing campaign, are given for illustration.

This paper reaffirms that social studies teachers should be responsible for teaching character and civic virtue. It argues that if democracy is to succeed, students have to learn a series of public and private character traits. They include civility, respect for law, persistence, negotiation and compromise, courage, and tolerance of ambiguity.