‘90s FAMILY : At Feinstein, Youths Learn the Value of Volunteering

Could this be America’s most boring high school?

No football. No cheerleaders. No gangbangers or metal detectors.

Student Andrea Smith, 14, said that she studied mediation techniques this year to calm squabbling children. She took flowers to invalids. She volunteered at a hospital. “I don’t really know what the other kids do after school, but me and my friends, we just get together and go to the library,” she said.

Welcome to Alan Shawn Feinstein High School in Providence, R.I., said to be the nation’s first public high school dedicated to community service. While many schools now have public-service requirements for graduation, at Feinstein--which opened this fall--the whole curriculum is built around volunteering in day-care centers, hospital labs, community gardens, zoos or soup kitchens. Each classroom displays the watchwords of founding philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein that could become--if it ever gets a team--a school cheer: “Respect. Courtesy. Integrity. Initiative.”

There are no tests or letter grades at Feinstein, only self-evaluations. Rather than sophomores, juniors and seniors, the students are called “explorers,” “majors” and “masters.”

Is it any wonder the school received 240 applications for 170 slots?

Feinstein students start out volunteering four hours a week and work up to 10. They discuss their experiences in “Issues, Ethics and Service Class”--one of their three 90-minute classes. By the end of high school, Principal Anthony Milano said, they should produce something “that really addresses a social question, that provides a real solution to a real problem.”

“We haven’t produced any yet,” he said.

But, he added hopefully, “If they had enough information and had done enough research, they could propose a solution as to what to do with a lot of our abandoned housing in Providence.”

As might be expected, the faculty has its share of hyphenated last names and people who remember John F. Kennedy’s “Ask Not” speech.

In the ‘90s, however, ‘60s idealism has a somewhat desperate tinge to it. Fearing a meltdown of core values in society, liberals, conservatives and centrists agree something has to be done to rebuild a national character--and soon.

But administrators say kids who want to come to Feinstein are probably predisposed to do good. Sometimes too disposed--like the student who became so involved answering a hot line for missing children that she soon was volunteering three hours a night. Her mother called the school to complain that her schoolwork was being neglected.

“I hesitate to say it, but honesty compels me, I didn’t know about it,” Milano said. The girl’s hours were cut back.

Lest anyone assume it’s nothing but slow times at Feinstein High, the students held a Harvest Dance in October. They also started planning another. At the meeting, someone suggested they increase the cost. “They said, ‘Why don’t we add a dollar to the cost of the ticket and donate to a charity or buy some non-perishable food items and give it to a place?’ ” Milano said.

Obviously a role model of honesty, Milano admitted that school officials were unable to screen every applicant this year. Some kids who wanted a little more excitement squeaked in. One could probably find some pregnant teen-agers or substance abusers at Feinstein, he said. “I know they’re not all angels.”

That’s no problem as far as philanthropist Feinstein is concerned. “I don’t see any problems with the high school,” he said. “There are a lot of wonderful kids in the world. When they suddenly realize they can impact positively on the lives of others, they become even more wonderful.”

Let’s hear it for respect, integrity, courtesy and initiative. C’mon you guys, yell!