Should Students be required to perform "Community Service"?

[declansdad]

However, this isn't about what's good for the specifically community service organization - it's about what's good for society overall.

What a backwards way of thinking! Let's just forget about the people and groups that we are helping, we are going to help them whether they like it or not and they will be thankfull for it!

 

[kaligal]

There is no such thing as forced volunteering.

Either you volunteer or you are forced.

Volunteering is lovely and kind.

Forcing people to work for nothing is evil.

 

[bicker]

what's good for society overall

What a backwards way of thinking!

Okay if you believe what you wrote (or believe for one second that the ridiculously corrupted way you decided to interpret what I wrote was even close to what my message actually stated) then I guess you and I have absolutely no common frame of reference on which to discuss the issue.

 

[declansdad]

Okay if you believe what you wrote (or believe for one second that the ridiculously corrupted way you decided to interpret what I wrote was even close to what my message actually stated) then I guess you and I have absolutely no common frame of reference on which to discuss the issue.

Please explain how forcing people to help community organizations in a manner that causes more work for that organization is good for soceity overall?

 

[bicker]

I have an intern this summer. Please explain how having me spend upwards of 10% of my work-time teaching him is good for our company? Answer: Because he will be more likely to come back and be a productive contributor to our organization next year.

 

[GinnyEmma]

Some of the sheeple in this thread are quite a wonder. They be quite content living in Mao's Red China. "But, but, but..forcing kids to do mandatory volunteering is for the good of the Empire ! There is no way their parents could actually teach them that."

Wow, did you come up with the sheeple thing in your own? So original!

 

[declansdad]

I have an intern this summer. Please explain how having me spend upwards of 10% of my work-time teaching him is good for our company? Answer: Because he will be more likely to come back and be a productive contributor to our organization next year.

If your intern wants to be there and work to the best of their abilities, you are right. However, that isn't what we are talking about and you know it.

How about you answer the question instead of trying to turn it into something else.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Some of the sheeple in this thread are quite a wonder. They be quite content living in Mao's Red China. "But, but, but..forcing kids to do mandatory volunteering is for the good of the Empire ! There is no way their parents could actually teach them that."

You should be aware that turning things into political issues will get you "points" here.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

Some of the sheeple in this thread are quite a wonder. They be quite content living in Mao's Red China. "But, but, but..forcing kids to do mandatory volunteering is for the good of the Empire ! There is no way their parents could actually teach them that."

There's very little taught at my child's middle school that I couldn't teach at home, and the things that I couldn't teach I could teach a sensible substitute (e.g. I can't teach Chinese, but I can teach French, I can't teach every instrument available in the instrumental music program). Nonetheless, I choose to send him to school because it works for our family dynamic, and my ability to earn money, for him to be taught by someone else for a portion of each day.

Does that make me a sheeperson (is that the singular form of sheeple? not sure) or is it just this one particular set of skills you object to the school teaching.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I am not for a government (i.e. public school) absolutely requiring anyone to "give back to their community." to interact with anyone they do not wish to interact with, or get involved with anything with which they do not wish to be involved. That goes for kids too.

Do you homeschool? Because I'm pretty sure there are days when the math teach qualifies as someone my child doesn't want to interact with or an English essays qualifies as something with which he does not wish to be involved.

I'm actually a big advocate for unschooling, but for my kid and my family I've chosen a more traditional model, one in which my child gives up a great deal of choice in return for other benefits.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Do you homeschool? Because I'm pretty sure there are days when the math teach qualifies as someone my child doesn't want to interact with or an English essays qualifies as something with which he does not wish to be involved.

I'm actually a big advocate for unschooling, but for my kid and my family I've chosen a more traditional model, one in which my child gives up a great deal of choice in return for other benefits.

I DID homeschool for 4 years and even then there were days my kids did not really want to interact with me--and vice versa Not many, but it happens

And yes, absolutely kids have teachers they do not like (at least most do at some point) and would rather not interact with. My daughter has never had any desire at all to be involved with gym class or my son with language arts class, but they are forced to and I actually think that is a good thing

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I agree volunteering has to be voluntary or it isnt volunteering. From what I can see a lot of kids have hours of homework to do, they are expected to do out of school activities work part time when do they get to be kids having fun. Or do these adults willing to give the time of children for "good causes" willing to give their time as well.

In my son's district, kid are required to do between 10 and 75 hours depending when they start (e.g. a kid that attends continously from 6th through 12th is required to do 75 hours, a kid who enrolls as a senior is required to do 10), so we're talking 10 to 12 hours a year. Or less than 2 days. Some of it is done at school, for example at our school the 6th graders do some kind of stream reclamation project in science and get, I think, 5 hours. So, in order to keep up they need to find one partial day during the entire school year. I know that somehow my kid managed to do that (he volunteered at the polls on election day, holding spaces in line for seniors who needed to sit down, bringing water to the judges, and handing out "I voted" stickers, and walked dogs for a local rescue) and still have time for plenty of homework, sports, play practice, xbox games, and rolling around on the floor with the dog.

I know that as a teacher I have "volunteered" way more hours than 10 this school year.

 

[tvguy]

It may be part of an education but it isn't part of the education provided by the school. The only way it should be part of a school's program is if it was to be an elective component and not forced on every student.

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Althought I am a little surprised that some folks want their kids to get less from school.

 

[RockAndRollBallerina]

At my former high school and the school district I graduated through Community Service was not a requirement. However, kids could work off detentions by doing community service instead of sitting and serving them. I absolutely do not think that community service should be a graduation requirement though.

 

[Pigeon]

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Althought I am a little surprised that some folks want their kids to get less from school.

There are all sorts of things I don't want my children getting from school. I want them getting a strong, academic, factual education. Moral development is not the business of the school, beyond the basic respect for each other that is necessary to keep the school running smoothly. And even that should come from home and be reinforced by the school.

My kids are in a ton of extracurricular activities, all of which have an educational component to them. For example, one plays in a regional orchestra, one does Tae Kwon Do, which has a philosophical component as well as athletics. We even do volunteer work. But this is our choice and it is no more educational than any of the other things we choose to do in our free time.

Schools have finite resources. Those resources should be used in a responsible way to enhance the academic achievement of children, not to take on all sorts of missions that are of questionable and unproven value. Even if the forced labor is done outside of school, it still consumes a great deal of adminstrative and teacher time that is more appropriately directed elsewhere.

 

[lsyorke]

Here's what I don't like about it, as someone who has worked for non-profit organizations that had a lot of students applying to volunteer so they could get their required hours: it can be a huge pain for the organization! Yes, you get some students who are enthusiastic and really contribute. But you also get some who don't really want to do it, who are less than kind and pleasant to the people they are working with, who don't do what they've been assigned to do but instead spend their time talking on the phone to their friends AND then want you to sign off that they completed their hours (well, they were THERE so that should count, in their minds). Meanwhile, you now have to either do the work yourself or find and train another volunteer.

Yes, I think volunteering and community service are valuable. But it is not fair to put already stretched organizations who are trying to help people and animals in the situation of dealing with reluctant students who don't actually want to help but need the hours.

Teresa

We always know when it's "forced community service" at my hospital.
We are inundated with high schoolers as volunteers. They end up doing only the required hours and then leaving. A lot of time spent to have a group who are only going to be there for a few hours. I can't remember one who stayed beyond the required time. It ends up being social time with little given to the organization.

 

[Charade]

Required? No.

"Compulsory Volunteer" is an oxymoron.

Special Credit? I'd be OK with that.

 

[declansdad]

Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. Althought I am a little surprised that some folks want their kids to get less from school.

I don't want any less from my son's school; I want them to provide what they are suppose to provide. Mandated volunteerism is not one of those things.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Requiring students to do community service is a horrible idea. Character is not built at school; character-building begins at home. Students who have a vision, ambition, and motivation to serve will find ways to do so without being required. Who knows, maybe other students will look to them as examples and get motivated themselves. But under no circumstances should the school be putting such requirements into its curriculum.

 

[Andtototoo]

Exactly. Employers have cited over and over a need for entry level workers with the sort of skills that can be learned through community service.

But employers give no credit for experience gained through community service. I have never once seen any evidence of that.

In 1979, I was interviewing for a job at my college's library. The librarian interviewing me told me point blank, "Don't put this volunteer information on the application. It does not count." I actually questioned him about it later because as a volunteer I had some great leadership experiences and gained valuable skills, while my paid employment consisted of being a grocery store cashier and was a totally clerical job. He told me, "The only employment that counts is PAID employment. Period."

And that has been the truth for every HR situation I've been in from an applicant to a member of a hiring committee. The last hire I did was for a position with responsibilities coordinating volunteers. I was the only person on the committee who thought experience as a volunteer was important. Everyone else just Xed through those portions of the applicants' resumes.

After 35 years in the working world, I have long since realized that volunteer activities mean squat to employers.