Should community service be mandatory in high school?

Question

Why or why not?

Answer 1

Slavery ended in the 1800's...

Answer 2

I think kids should do it if they like, and it should remain something that colleges look at. Also, the National Honors Society is a community service-oriented organization which is also an excellent institution.

That being said, community service should NOT be required because it simply isn't a skill necessary for adult life. Granted, it creates a successful social person, but very few profitable careers or lifestyles have a basis in helping the community with no monetary return.

A more practical requirement would be an internship or employment of some sort, if even that. But personally, I feel that is up to the student. Education is a must, but community action is not.

Answer 3

No, because students are already inundated with work. Some also have jobs or activities after school. Some organizations will use them as nothing more than gofers due to their age and inexperience. Also, organizations will be babysitting some unhappy and unmotivated students who don't want to be there.

The school system should offer a voluntary community service program during the summer break. The administration will have a better ability to monitor the program and the students will have the time. The administration could get local businesses to donate money for a scholarship competition or goods for prizes to be awarded at the end of the program. Teachers could inform students that community service will look good on a college application.

Answer 4

Some sort of community service or volunteer service should be a part of the cirricullum in all high schools. It would serve to teach young people responsibility & a sense of giving, which can only be helpful to them as the mature and go out into the world.

Answer 5

Absolutely not. The concept is exploitive. Notice how we dance around the point of why it is, specifically, that high school students would be given this great honor and not, say, the unemployed, who on the whole have a lot more free time than some kid who has an education to pursue? When you see some of the questions in these forums, do you really get the impression that our kids spend too much time studying? Because let's use our common sense - coming home tired from work is not going to enhance one's ability to study. A hard working and unusually energetic student might thrive in class in spite of his job, but he won't do so because of it. So, why do we specifically seek out high school students to do this social work?

Because high school students don't get to vote, and the unemployed do. What we're talking about is taking advantage of a generation's political moment of weakness, at a time when we can squeeze uncompensated labor from its members. We speak of the nobility of the character of the young person, when we should be more concerned about the nobility that is so clearly lacking in our own.

Let's lose the euphemisms and call the mandatory community service proposal what it is - a suggestion that we should save money by using slave labor, instead of honestly paying people to perform the work that society needs doing, through our tax supported social services and our contributions to charitable organizations, and then try to rationalise our naked greed and aggression toward those we extort the labor out of as being a character building exercise for those we take advantage of. To do this to anybody would be immoral, and to use it as an opportunity to bring back child labor is to send an already bad idea over the top.

If we wish to raise our children to be moral people, we must begin by being moral ourselves. To lie to ourselves in such a self-serving way, at their expense, is not moral, and worse, sends the message that when we say that we care about them, it is only part of a ploy to get something out of them. This will only promote cynicism, in a country that already has that in far too great of an abundance.

And when you get old, and it is you who need the kindness of those once young, rather than they needing yours, what shall you say to them to whom you attached the yoke, in what should have been the waning days of their innocence? They will look back on the youths they did not have, on the memories they never had the chance to make with friends they were never allowed the free time to have. How much kindness will they have been shown, and how much should we expect in return?

Let the kids be kids. Youth is brief. They will have time enough to carry the burdens of adulthood. Let them do so well rested and well prepared to contribute on the highest level their native abilities will allow.

Answer 6

Well I had to do community service. While I acknowledge it can be a useful experience, I don't think they have a right to force students to do any sort of labour for free. The concept seems somewhat unethical, and it really isn't necessary to an academic education. Yes it's good for "moral education" and such things but that really isn't the place of a public standard education system.

Answer 7

well thats deffinitly an oppinion question... making comunity service mandatory makes the community approve, but its being done because its mandated making it a less nobel cause really........... on the other hand if teenagers know that the graffitii they are spraying on the side of a building will be scrubbed off by themsleves they are in fact less likely to do it....... i truthefully dont like the idea.. schools in my own oppinion should make community service acctivities more available for the students to do but not make it a mandation for graduation........(it is mandated at my school and i truthefully cant say i like it very much)

Answer 8

Number one issue. Nothing could be "forced" on people. it would be against "human rights" -- applicable in most western countries. we are to choose what we want to choose and how we want to choose. it is basically a free society. that puts the question into context. no you can not make it "mandatory". then the second issue comes -- could it be "voluntary" --that is a definite option. yes, if the school board approves of its introduction and dissemination of such information. again it depends on the social standing of such -- leadership and the school board -- i.e. if it is located in a very rich district or a poor district. as you see, you raised an interesting question but the answer is not that easy. it all depends and needs lots of discussion and agreement before it can be implemented. but i would say definitely it can not be mandatory -- hope it helps.
ps. the undersigned has done tremendous volunteer work in the past -- and i must admit it has added many pluses to my life.

Answer 9

Yes because it is important for teenagers to realize that other people need help and that they can make a difference. I was required to complete 40 hours of community service before I could graduate high school and 40 hours for thousands of students can make a huge difference. It certainly did not hurt me at all.

Answer 10

Being a student is community service; educating your self is good for everybody! But once you are done being a student, say 18 years old, than maybe we should have a national service; either in the military or with a charitable org. If we don't go to university than we should serve our country in one way or another. If we do go to university, than we should serve after.

Answer 11

I grew up in an particularly small city and severe college became into have been each and all of the pastime became into aside from having inebriated and making out. I even did a number of that in the time of school. LOL this is complicated to have self assurance I survived severe college and that i became into an "A" student. college is have been females have been and have been I performed soccer so I had a blast. It did no longer injury that by utilising the time i began out severe college my Dad had end ingesting (He became into between the worst alcoholics I easily have ever seen) . mom became into nonetheless a soreness yet Dad and that i became perfect acquaintances, So i assume my view of my severe college years is somewhat biased. the college Dances have been enormous activities in a small city that had one action picture teach with in simple terms one exhibit screen, no rapid nutrition eating places and no department stores. We did no longer get Rock stay shows coming interior of a hundred and fifty miles so i did no longer see my first stay stay overall performance till I went away to varsity except you count form interior of sight bands enjoying on the Dances.