Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s like 14 people who work in the SSL office. I think volunteering and service is important, but SSL hours misses the mark a lot of the time. Students earn 45 hours for just taking required classes. I’d be ok with eliminating the requirement and re-assigning the SSL office.

Agreed. ELD (ESOL) students have historically had a difficult time with this requirement. Why make this a graduation requirement? Reassign SSL staff to teach.

Do you have evidence to back that up, or are you making it up?

In my experience, teaching in a different district with a similar requirement, low income kids are comfortable with public transportation, and they are more likely to live in areas that aren't car dependent. MCPS offers opportunities at school, and at organizations in all neighborhoods, like public elementary schools, libraries, community based organizations, churches that operate food pantries etc . . . If anything, they are more opportunities in lower income neighborhoods, because those neighborhoods are denser housing.

The argument that a kid can't do SSL hours without someone driving applies to affluent kids who are overscheduled and picky about what they do, and whose parents don't expect them to walk or take public transportation. A kid who is willing to do a variety of work, and can get places by themself, can find opportunities.

My kids have been taking public buses since they were 11. They are very skilled at the system. There are very few opportunities that are accessible by public transportation, which kids can do without a parent accompanying them, and which give you more than an hour or two at a time. For instance, my kid did one where she went to a community center in Gaithersburg to help the elderly with their phones….it was 90 minutes of service for which I had to drive her about 40 minutes each way. There was no way to get there by bus in less than about 3 hours with multiple transfers. I really do read these emails every week and there are very few options that don’t require a parent to attend, drive or shell out money (eg buy supplies for the kid to make something at home). One year we went to the County MLK day of service and it was soooooo overcrowded — a lot of the events ran out of supplies before the kids even got a chance to do them. Ans that required an adult (I brought 6 kids as a favor to other parents). And even then was booked up very early so you had to sign up right away.

The idea that there are thousands and thousands of hours of meaningful service in the county that these kids can do on their own is just not realistic. I think. In large party because no one really wants unsupervised kids — unless it is part of a scouting program or a camp where you have parental permissions, waivers and insurance.

+1. This. People keep posting on this thread about how easy it is to get hours and how parents didn’t need to get involved in driving them around at all, but few are posting any details about what these unicorn opportunities are. My takeaway from this thread is that you need to be a parent who paid $$$ for a camp for years that then contracts your kid as free labor and gives them SSl hours once they’re 13+. That doesn’t seem particularly meaningful to me.

Go here: https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/volunteercenter/ Click mcps SSL hours, and use the right-side dropdown "filter by" menu to select virtual opportunity. SSL from your very own home! Easy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Continuing... if you are going to refuse to "drive your kid places" - that's a problem. That is one of the most basic responsibilities of parenting a child who can not drive him/herself yet.

But part of the e peoplen is significant driving to get 1-2 hours of service. I don’t want to drive 40 hours so they get 75 hours of service credit. The other issue is that it often takes 30 minutes just to find those opportunities …. So if they are doing 30 different activities to get 75 hours, that’s another 15 hours of parent work. I used to be a big fan of this requirement but after 7 years of dealing with it for a bunch of different kids, I’ve decided it’s a lot of parental work and not that much benefit to the kids. The kids that have an ongoing service commitment are doing it for the love of the activity, not the SSL hours. The ones doing it for the SSl hours are not getting much out of it anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s like 14 people who work in the SSL office. I think volunteering and service is important, but SSL hours misses the mark a lot of the time. Students earn 45 hours for just taking required classes. I’d be ok with eliminating the requirement and re-assigning the SSL office.

Agreed. ELD (ESOL) students have historically had a difficult time with this requirement. Why make this a graduation requirement? Reassign SSL staff to teach.

Do you have evidence to back that up, or are you making it up?

In my experience, teaching in a different district with a similar requirement, low income kids are comfortable with public transportation, and they are more likely to live in areas that aren't car dependent. MCPS offers opportunities at school, and at organizations in all neighborhoods, like public elementary schools, libraries, community based organizations, churches that operate food pantries etc . . . If anything, they are more opportunities in lower income neighborhoods, because those neighborhoods are denser housing.

The argument that a kid can't do SSL hours without someone driving applies to affluent kids who are overscheduled and picky about what they do, and whose parents don't expect them to walk or take public transportation. A kid who is willing to do a variety of work, and can get places by themself, can find opportunities.

My kids have been taking public buses since they were 11. They are very skilled at the system. There are very few opportunities that are accessible by public transportation, which kids can do without a parent accompanying them, and which give you more than an hour or two at a time. For instance, my kid did one where she went to a community center in Gaithersburg to help the elderly with their phones….it was 90 minutes of service for which I had to drive her about 40 minutes each way. There was no way to get there by bus in less than about 3 hours with multiple transfers. I really do read these emails every week and there are very few options that don’t require a parent to attend, drive or shell out money (eg buy supplies for the kid to make something at home). One year we went to the County MLK day of service and it was soooooo overcrowded — a lot of the events ran out of supplies before the kids even got a chance to do them. Ans that required an adult (I brought 6 kids as a favor to other parents). And even then was booked up very early so you had to sign up right away.

The idea that there are thousands and thousands of hours of meaningful service in the county that these kids can do on their own is just not realistic. I think. In large party because no one really wants unsupervised kids — unless it is part of a scouting program or a camp where you have parental permissions, waivers and insurance.

+1. This. People keep posting on this thread about how easy it is to get hours and how parents didn’t need to get involved in driving them around at all, but few are posting any details about what these unicorn opportunities are. My takeaway from this thread is that you need to be a parent who paid $$$ for a camp for years that then contracts your kid as free labor and gives them SSl hours once they’re 13+. That doesn’t seem particularly meaningful to me.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s like 14 people who work in the SSL office. I think volunteering and service is important, but SSL hours misses the mark a lot of the time. Students earn 45 hours for just taking required classes. I’d be ok with eliminating the requirement and re-assigning the SSL office.

Agreed. ELD (ESOL) students have historically had a difficult time with this requirement. Why make this a graduation requirement? Reassign SSL staff to teach.

Do you have evidence to back that up, or are you making it up?

In my experience, teaching in a different district with a similar requirement, low income kids are comfortable with public transportation, and they are more likely to live in areas that aren't car dependent. MCPS offers opportunities at school, and at organizations in all neighborhoods, like public elementary schools, libraries, community based organizations, churches that operate food pantries etc . . . If anything, they are more opportunities in lower income neighborhoods, because those neighborhoods are denser housing.

The argument that a kid can't do SSL hours without someone driving applies to affluent kids who are overscheduled and picky about what they do, and whose parents don't expect them to walk or take public transportation. A kid who is willing to do a variety of work, and can get places by themself, can find opportunities.

My kids have been taking public buses since they were 11. They are very skilled at the system. There are very few opportunities that are accessible by public transportation, which kids can do without a parent accompanying them, and which give you more than an hour or two at a time. For instance, my kid did one where she went to a community center in Gaithersburg to help the elderly with their phones….it was 90 minutes of service for which I had to drive her about 40 minutes each way. There was no way to get there by bus in less than about 3 hours with multiple transfers. I really do read these emails every week and there are very few options that don’t require a parent to attend, drive or shell out money (eg buy supplies for the kid to make something at home). One year we went to the County MLK day of service and it was soooooo overcrowded — a lot of the events ran out of supplies before the kids even got a chance to do them. Ans that required an adult (I brought 6 kids as a favor to other parents). And even then was booked up very early so you had to sign up right away.

The idea that there are thousands and thousands of hours of meaningful service in the county that these kids can do on their own is just not realistic. I think. In large party because no one really wants unsupervised kids — unless it is part of a scouting program or a camp where you have parental permissions, waivers and insurance.

+1. This. People keep posting on this thread about how easy it is to get hours and how parents didn’t need to get involved in driving them around at all, but few are posting any details about what these unicorn opportunities are. My takeaway from this thread is that you need to be a parent who paid $$$ for a camp for years that then contracts your kid as free labor and gives them SSl hours once they’re 13+. That doesn’t seem particularly meaningful to me.

Local food pantry, 2 hrs at a time in Silver Spring. May not seem meaningful to you and is certainly not glamorous. You don't need to be rich.

It is meaningful -but it’s not what SSL is like for most kids. You may not need to be rich but in most cases you need a parent willing to drive you to volunteer. Food pantries aren’t typically in prime locations close to public transport.

...but they are almost always conveniently located in low-income neighborhoods with many ELLs, which is the demographic folks on this thread claim to be worried aobut.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there a way to check how many SSL hours your kid has on Parentvue or Synergy? I was looking around and don’t see it.

It’s in the Course History on ParentVue, at least for my high schoolers. I’m not sure if middle schoolers have this too.

just checked--it's there for my middle schoolers. he's got credit for some dumb stuff (3 hours for MCPS student expectations training). That's not really what most people see as "service."

No it's not, but MCPS is trying to help all kids see where they could provide service and help. I personally feel that should use a program like Root & Shoots to fully reach Service Learning over a period of time to all 6th graders(along with study skills but that's a different topic). Then they would be equipped to find real SSL project or create their own. But in the absence of that, there are plenty of opportunities from MS through 12th to complete the remaining hours that are not given from class.

Not sure why they put an emphasis on 75 hours of random stuff and call it "service" (30 hours from Outdoor Ed that is required anyway, 15 hours here and there for random virtual learnings that are required anyway to be a student...) Better that the school picks a once a year project and just does it with the kids as a group...

Not graduating kids whose parents can't drive them around to volunteer activities or pay for SSL camp hours is dumb.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s like 14 people who work in the SSL office. I think volunteering and service is important, but SSL hours misses the mark a lot of the time. Students earn 45 hours for just taking required classes. I’d be ok with eliminating the requirement and re-assigning the SSL office.

I'd be more inclined to keep the requirement if service was actually community service. Instead, though, students can get hours automatically in class or (looking at a recent email) attending a zoom where they "have the opportunity to engage in a youth town hall with Montgomery County councilmembers".

Exactly! Actual volunteer service. Not this bs.

It’s not volunteer service if it’s mandatory.

Child Labor Loophole.

Honestly, does this requirement exist to teach kids to accept exploitation? Maybe to acclimate them to no pay for their labor so that someday they’ll be thrilled with minimum wage?

AYFKM? "exploitation"? These are opt-in activities. Nobody's being "exploited". Good lord...

Y'all raising a bunch of gold-digging moneygrubbers thinking their presence is a present or some mess. Service learning exists to supplement your parenting deficiencies and teach kids that being of use to their community is part of being in a community. You don't get paid for every little thing you do, nor should you, nor should you expect to. Damn.

And it's STUPID easy to collect these things. My HS kid has over 400. My 7th grader has over 200. They are not particularly engaged or generous people, and I've never once had to suggest they volunteer. They found activities they were interested in, and found ways to be of use at the activities they enjoyed. Students get about half of the 75 hour requirement just for in-school activities, probably because you wanky whiners whinged enough that the school started subsidizing your children's community service. If your kid can't figure out how to give 35ish hours of service between 6th and 12th grade, well, congratulations on the leech you raised.

It's just over an hour every month between 6th and 12th grade. If you're not raising your kids to be at least that generous, that's your L as a parent.

So… yes. People like you are trying to indoctrinate kids to perform labor for free. (Otherwise you’ll call them names.)

I get it. You’re rich but don’t want to pay a living wage to your daycare providers, and certainly not to your future baristas or burger slingers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There’s like 14 people who work in the SSL office. I think volunteering and service is important, but SSL hours misses the mark a lot of the time. Students earn 45 hours for just taking required classes. I’d be ok with eliminating the requirement and re-assigning the SSL office.

I'd be more inclined to keep the requirement if service was actually community service. Instead, though, students can get hours automatically in class or (looking at a recent email) attending a zoom where they "have the opportunity to engage in a youth town hall with Montgomery County councilmembers".

Exactly! Actual volunteer service. Not this bs.

It’s not volunteer service if it’s mandatory.

Child Labor Loophole.

Honestly, does this requirement exist to teach kids to accept exploitation? Maybe to acclimate them to no pay for their labor so that someday they’ll be thrilled with minimum wage?

AYFKM? "exploitation"? These are opt-in activities. Nobody's being "exploited". Good lord...

Y'all raising a bunch of gold-digging moneygrubbers thinking their presence is a present or some mess. Service learning exists to supplement your parenting deficiencies and teach kids that being of use to their community is part of being in a community. You don't get paid for every little thing you do, nor should you, nor should you expect to. Damn.

And it's STUPID easy to collect these things. My HS kid has over 400. My 7th grader has over 200. They are not particularly engaged or generous people, and I've never once had to suggest they volunteer. They found activities they were interested in, and found ways to be of use at the activities they enjoyed. Students get about half of the 75 hour requirement just for in-school activities, probably because you wanky whiners whinged enough that the school started subsidizing your children's community service. If your kid can't figure out how to give 35ish hours of service between 6th and 12th grade, well, congratulations on the leech you raised.

It's just over an hour every month between 6th and 12th grade. If you're not raising your kids to be at least that generous, that's your L as a parent.

I hope you don’t talk the way you write. 🤮

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t even know how this is possible. They give out SSL hours like they are candy on Halloween! My 8th grader already has enough to graduate and he’s barely even tried!

Do share your knowledge then of how it was so easy for your kid--where they got the hours and how. I have a middle schooler, and unless I drive them around to volunteer opportunities, I'm not sure how you would get the 75 done in middle school.

I don't have a full recollection of all the hours - but all the kids got like 10 hours for Outdoor Education. They get some for other in-school events too, not sure exactly what they are because I haven't been there for those. My son participated in some bake-sales and a club at school to get some. He also volunteered as a CIT helping with little kids at a camp over the summer - got like 30 hours that way. He did a film camp with our rec center (so this was actually a very affordable camp) and got like 20 hours for that because they produced a film on a local non-profit / international food market. We packed food once or twice for Tommy's Pantry. A friend of ours organized 5-6 kids to do a local trash pickup a few times too. That helped him get maybe 8 hours. He also referees for Takoma Soccer, but they offer either payment or SSL - so he has chosen to get paid instead, but that would rack up the hours big time. The county has a massive database with a range of options. It's really not hard.

It's not that hard for your kid because he's privileged. Being a CIT likely means he was likely a paid camper before. That's not accessible to most students. If not, please name the camp that allows CITs who haven't been campers before. Presumably you bought the ingredients for bake sales and drove him to the food pantry. And some kids aren't in MCPS middle school so they don't get Outdoor Ed hours...

It frustrates me that kids who don't have those same privileges and parents who have the resources to support are being insulted here and more importantly, at risk not to graduate...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do you know how many notices were sent out? My DS is a senior and I haven’t heard a word. Most kids that I know of are way over the required 75.

OP here. My son had a breakdown of the students that as of now won't graduate. It showed how many had less than 20, 20-30, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Continuing... if you are going to refuse to "drive your kid places" - that's a problem. That is one of the most basic responsibilities of parenting a child who can not drive him/herself yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t even know how this is possible. They give out SSL hours like they are candy on Halloween! My 8th grader already has enough to graduate and he’s barely even tried!

Do share your knowledge then of how it was so easy for your kid--where they got the hours and how. I have a middle schooler, and unless I drive them around to volunteer opportunities, I'm not sure how you would get the 75 done in middle school.

I don't have a full recollection of all the hours - but all the kids got like 10 hours for Outdoor Education. They get some for other in-school events too, not sure exactly what they are because I haven't been there for those. My son participated in some bake-sales and a club at school to get some. He also volunteered as a CIT helping with little kids at a camp over the summer - got like 30 hours that way. He did a film camp with our rec center (so this was actually a very affordable camp) and got like 20 hours for that because they produced a film on a local non-profit / international food market. We packed food once or twice for Tommy's Pantry. A friend of ours organized 5-6 kids to do a local trash pickup a few times too. That helped him get maybe 8 hours. He also referees for Takoma Soccer, but they offer either payment or SSL - so he has chosen to get paid instead, but that would rack up the hours big time. The county has a massive database with a range of options. It's really not hard.