Anonymous wrote:My kids got their SSL out of the way in MS early on. They loved the things they did - making food for people in homeless shelters, giving provisions to families setting up new homes, taking meals to terminal patients. They saw parts of DC they'd never otherwise visit and met a lot of people. It wasn't remotely "labor" - its not like they were shoveling coal or cleaning chimneys. It was really educational. Also I paid for most of it, so that's the complete opposite of labor.
Anonymous wrote:All ranting and joking aside I do question how a for-profit after school program can offer SSL hours. I thought only non profits could offer ssl?
Anonymous wrote:All ranting and joking aside I do question how a for-profit after school program can offer SSL hours. I thought only non profits could offer ssl?
Anonymous wrote:We had a nonprofit advertise making posters for 1st responders during the pandemic. Kids poured their hearts into the work and then the non profit never made themselves available to collect the poster and never gave the ssl hours.
We now have another one where the kid made food and delivered it and uploaded pictures etc and never got the ssl hours.
Great lesson for the kids I guess.
Anonymous wrote:I agree it’s mostly BS but I think it always was.
Most MC and UMC kids do lots of things that would qualify and this is just an exercise in getting those sheets signed.
And I have questions about whether it’s fair to have poor kids required to do this. So a rich kid gets SSL for watching kids at a soccer game but the poor kid doesn’t get SSL for watching her baby cousins while her aunt works a second shift.
My dad grew up poor and was very disturbed by the requirement. He got home from school and worked to help support his family until he went to sleep then got up and worked more before school. He said he didn’t know he would have found 75 hours to work for someone else’s family, even with 7 years to do it.

Anonymous wrote:I remember when student service learning was about community service but it’s evolved into unpaid child labor. I just saw an ad for an after school program looking for teachers assistant for ssl hours.
This is just a rant.
But in all honestly please forward the ad. My child is in search of ssl hours, you would be doing us a favor.