ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the following questions: What is community service in the context of independent schools? What are the broad rationales underlying school-based community service programs? And What is unique about the organizational context in which service programs operate? Community service entails students serving in community-based helping organizations. A community service program may be distinguished from a spontaneous or ad hoc activity because as a program it is a planned and more formal activity. The "what" of community service is relatively easy to define; the "why," however, is much more complex and difficult to tease apart. A number of rationales explain the underlying purposes of community service. Research on independent schools suggests that independent schools, especially boarding schools, share many similarities with the "total institution" framework articulated by Erving Goffman. Independent schools differ from their public counterparts in terms of their governance structure, relationship to the community, composition of the student body, and school objectives.
