Martin Luther King Jr High School in Lithonia, GA Kicks off "Pen or Pencil" Program

Excerpts from Service-Learning Blog posting by Djuan Coleon, Show Me the Way Foundation - http://www.service-learning.blogspot.com

On Oct. 5, 2009 at Martin Luther King Jr High School in Lithonia, GA (a suburb of Atlanta) we gathered to energized and engage the youth about Service Learning. I chair the Show Me the Way Foundation (SMTWF) and we have partnered with the National Alliance of Faith and Justice (NAFJ) to roll out their service learning program called "Pen or Pencil".

In a nutshell the program stresses the reality of the two buses that travel to two different destinations each day. One bus goes to the PEN (penitentiary) the other bus goes to the PENCIL (school/education). The youth have a choice to decide which bus they want to get on. President Obama has been stressing education and the need for America to step up the academic standards of not only our schools but the students themselves must strive to lead the world, and we can't do it by dropping out.

The 2009 Pen or Pencil/SNCC High School Tour Presented by SMTWF, is a 20 school tour throughout the metro area of Atlanta, GA focused on the challenge of the alarming rates of teen violence in metro-Atlanta communities and the staggering number of high school dropouts.

The PEN and PENCIL program's methodology is from SNCC (Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee), this iconic grassroots civil rights organization from the 1960's was a true youth movement for change and a blueprint for constructive organizing. We hoped to take the organizing strategies, wisdom and passion from the youth over 55 of that era and pass those ideals down to the young people under 25 of today.

The Pen or Pencil program has a list of specific projects that the youth can sign up for and implement in their local community. When we commit to work together and partner with our young people we will see results. Once the rally was over, we had almost half of the youth in the auditorium sign up to enroll in the PEN or PENCIL program, I might have been surprised by their enthusiasm for service but history certainly was not.

Learn more about the National Alliance of Faith and Justice (a National Learn and Serve Challenge Partner and MLK Day of Service National Grantee) at: http://www.nafj.org and their PEN or PENCIL program at: http://www.penorpencilmovement.org