Should Students be required to perform "Community Service"?

[Mama Who]

Not from a public school, no. I believe that's a thing for parents to determine for their own children. How much is appropriate and what service is worthy is not something a school has any business dictating.

 

[disneyaddicted]

I love the idea. My kids school requires it. My son volunteered at an adopt a pet day at the park which led to volunteering at the SPCA, he kept volunteering after that at animal shelters, then he volunteered on a farm that grows produce specifically for WIC.

He has since graduated but still volunteers because he got so much out of it in highschool. My DD volunteers at a womans shelter, at first she hated the idea of being "forced" to volunteer, but now she enjoys it.

 

[declansdad]

No, making people volunteer is not what volunteering is about.

 

[TheIncredibles!]

I would have no problems with my children's school requiring community service as long as the school coordinated everything, provided transportation and the service was done during school hours. Otherwise they can stick it.

 

[tvguy]

In a public school as a graduation requirement, NO.
I don't agree that one can mandate social conscience and I don't agree with a mandatory requirment. IMO the use of mandatory takes the volunteer spirit out of the service.

I respectfully disagree.
You're correct, you can't mandate social conscience. But the whole reason school exists is to educate, and expose students to a number of things they will face in life and give them the tools to deal with those things. The volunteer requirement shows students what options are out there, so hopefully they will continue volunteering beyound the tiny amount required in school.
Our schools are in trouble. They are dropping subjects. In some areas the instruction year is down to just 170 days. We are graduating students from high school who aren't educated. My daughter started at a California State University campus in 2009. The SAT, ACT and GPA's were the highest in the history of the school system, and the number of incoming freshman having to take remedial math and english was the highest in history. Someone mentioned work, guess what, school is work, without out pay. What you earn in school is an ability to survive in the real world. I say, put the work back in school, in the classroom, and in community service.

 

[declansdad]

I respectfully disagree.
You're correct, you can't mandate social conscience. But the whole reason school exists is to educate, and expose students to a number of things they will face in life and give them the tools to deal with those things. The volunteer requirement shows students what options are out there, so hopefully they will continue volunteering beyound the tiny amount required in school.
Our schools are in trouble. They are dropping subjects. In some areas the instruction year is down to just 170 days. We are graduating students from high school who aren't educated. My daughter started at a California State University campus in 2009. The SAT, ACT and GPA's were the highest in the history of the school system, and the number of incoming freshman having to take remedial math and english was the highest in history. Someone mentioned work, guess what, school is work, without out pay. What you earn in school is an ability to survive in the real world. I say, put the work back in school, in the classroom, and in community service.

This would be an argument for more classroom time not community service/

 

[luvmy3]

I respectfully disagree.
You're correct, you can't mandate social conscience. But the whole reason school exists is to educate, and expose students to a number of things they will face in life and give them the tools to deal with those things. The volunteer requirement shows students what options are out there, so hopefully they will continue volunteering beyound the tiny amount required in school.
Our schools are in trouble. They are dropping subjects. In some areas the instruction year is down to just 170 days. We are graduating students from high school who aren't educated. My daughter started at a California State University campus in 2009. The SAT, ACT and GPA's were the highest in the history of the school system, and the number of incoming freshman having to take remedial math and english was the highest in history. Someone mentioned work, guess what, school is work, without out pay. What you earn in school is an ability to survive in the real world. I say, put the work back in school, in the classroom, and in community service.

All the more reason for schools to focus in academic education, and stop trying to mandate social conscience then.

 

[krcit]

This would be an argument for more classroom time not community service/

I agree.


I don't think it should be required in public schools. If a private school requires it, I think that is fine. In fact, I went to a Catholic high school and we were required to do community service.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Our schools are in trouble. They are dropping subjects. In some areas the instruction year is down to just 170 days. We are graduating students from high school who aren't educated. My daughter started at a California State University campus in 2009. The SAT, ACT and GPA's were the highest in the history of the school system, and the number of incoming freshman having to take remedial math and english was the highest in history. Someone mentioned work, guess what, school is work, without out pay. What you earn in school is an ability to survive in the real world. I say, put the work back in school, in the classroom, and in community service.

Yes, our schools are in trouble. The US is falling behind the rest of the world in Math and Science education. Kids need to learn. Math, science, and reading. Volunteering at a animal shelter, while a great thing to do in our community, will NOT raise a kid's math, science, or reading scores (well, maybe biology...a little).

We live in a country with a poverty rate of 14.3%. Some students need to have a real job that pays money to put food on the table. Volunteering at the YMCA isn't going to get a student's younger siblings dinner that night.

Is community service a good thing? Absolutely. Is it important to me that my kids be active in their community? Yes. They volunteer at church. They fundraise for the food bank. They walk 5K walkathons. When I was in High School, none of those would have counted to the "involuntary volunteering" my district said I needed to do to graduate high school, because it was all church related.

I volunteered in a blood bank. I learned about biohazards and the importance of donating blood. It was good work, I won't deny that. Maybe if I gotten into the medical field it might have been helpful. But the thing I remember most is that almost everybody I worked with smoked, which I found funny but hypocritical. I also did some work volunteering for the Red Cross teaching swimming lessons. I learned nothing constructive.

You know what most of the students got credit for in my district? Volunteering at the local big-money music festival. Guess who one of the big proponents of the community service requirement was in our district. The group that ran the music festival.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I've never heard the term "service", here in my area it is always called volunteering.
Is there really a difference and if so, what is it?

When you want to do it, it's volunteering. When the court system or school district forces you to do it, it's "community service".

 

[Chernab0g]

All the more reason for schools to focus in academic education, and stop trying to mandate social conscience then.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

This is what the school district I graduated from now requires:

• Decide on several areas of interest and discuss them with your parent or guardian.
• Use the web site or community service directory for further information on your chosen activity.
• Visit the SSC for your application.
• Contact the agency/organization to arrange for an interview, to schedule service time, orientation, etc. Email may be available for some agencies.
• Complete the entire application and obtain the following signatures: agency student parent/guardian counselor
• Return all copies of the application to your counselor.
• Begin service time, keeping a daily journal of your experiences at the site.
• Record your service hours on the time sheet, getting your on-site supervisor's signature each day you attended.
• Return your time card and journal to your guidance counselor when you have completed service at that agency. If you fill one time card, you may turn it in to your counselor and start another one.
• If you decide to serve more than one agency, you must complete this process for each one.
• Upon completion of sixty (60) hours of approved service and review of the journal of your activities by the counselor, appropriate credit (.5) will be added to your permanent academic record.

School clubs and sports are apparently now included (but only up to 15 hours).

 

[kaytieeldr]

But this isn't the schools place to teach.

Values and morals are taught in the home. That sticks with teens. Something forced upon them temporarily in HS does not.

When you come down to it, everything taught all throughout life and school is temporary unless the person being taught chooses to learn and remember it. But I'm confused. Are you saying schools can only teach concrete, absolute information? If that's the case, get me a lawyer. I was always taught there were nine planets in the solar system. That was an absolute fact... until just a few years ago.
I wanna sue! I was 'taught' something not so! You know, I think in all my years of learning, I recall other abstracts. The Pythagorean theorem, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, good manners, playing fair, sex education (yes, the latter items at home as well - but oh my goodness! the schools taught us as well)...

Look, some posters where schools require community service, whether they agree with it or not, have pointed out it can be really important to college applicants. If you don't like the policy, amass like-minded parents and approach your school board (or Dept. of Education, if it's a statewide requirement).

 

[Deb & Bill]

Students at my son's Catholic HS were required to complete 100 hours of Community Service in order to graduate. They offered all sorts of activities through the school such as reading to kids at the under privileged day cares or kindergartens, providing tutoring for kids, all sorts of events through Key Club. My son started volunteering at the Cat Habitat at PetSmart cleaning cages, playing with the cats (with his Dad and me, mostly Dad). He also put in nearly 1400 hours at our local VA Medical Center working in the Pharmacy, and some of the clinics calling patients to remind them of their appointments. When he graduated in May, he had over 1500 hours of community service, the most for his class and he received special recognition for that. The student with the next highest number of hours was about 450 hours.

His birthday is late July, so he really wasn't eligible to get a paying job until the beginning of his Junior year, so he spent three summers working nearly 40 hours per week at the VA. He actually wound up getting a $1000 scholarship from the VA Voluntary Service.

At one point during his volunteering, he thought he might like to be a pharmacist, something he had never even thought about until he actually worked in the pharmacy. The people he worked with in the pharmacy really love him and took him under their wings and taught him a lot.

Volunteering taught him about working. It taught him responsibility because the people were really counting on him to show up. He learned to talk to the veterans. He learned time management because he always had to get his homework done and go to Cross County practice.

 

[CurlyGirl]

Yes, absolutely. Giving back to society makes for a well rounded person.

 

[okeydokey]

Sure, why not. They are forced to take PE or Civics or Literature. They are forced to get to school on time. I have no problem with it.

My kids already volunteer lots and will not have a problem meeting the requirement.

 

[georgina]

Forcing students to do it kind of ruins the whole point of "volunteering". It is just more idiocy from a failed school system run by out of control Liberals.

No, I do not feel public schools should mandate community service for all (and FYI, I am an extreme liberal!)

My kids have volunteered as part of clubs, NHS, sports teams, scouts, and church, but those were all activities they chose to participate in. Getting my DS to fit in his NHS hours was a struggle, and at the end of the year they gave him service hours for donating his hair to locks of love (I guess he got time for growing it for 4 years). I don't care how many of your kids enjoyed or learned something from their service, it doesn't convince me everyone should be forced to participate.

 

[tvguy]

All the more reason for schools to focus in academic education, and stop trying to mandate social conscience then.

Why not? Our students need to be doing more learning across the board. More time in the classroom, less time with video games and at the skate park.
I don't see community service as a mandate to social conscience, I see it like everything else in school, as education that will help them make it out in the real world.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Volunteering is a wonderful thing. Those that do it Want too and get personal satisfaction from doing it. The very word Volunteer does not include REQUIRED, nor is it something that should be forced on anyone IMHO.
There has always been and will always be those people/kids that are so inclined to take a rigorous scholastic schedule, get good grades, stay out of trouble, participate in clubs (which often requires/offers community service work in it), work some hours, and actually enjoy some down time. To require aka force kids to volunteer does not make them "want" to do it later on, it likely deters them...And how many actually put in the time and continue to pursue it after the conclusion of the "requirement?"

Id much rather see the HS'ers take a class "about" community service, giving back to society, feeling empowered to make a visible change, seeing that change and have them pursue it on their own, when they are ready to take on that additional responsibility.
Frankly, I am rather tired of the political correctness that has been forced down kids throats. They have enough on their plates (atleast the ones I know do) and they are the same proactive kids that ARE involved in community service projects without another "requirement" "rule" or whatever the latest term they deem "in" to make them do it, enough already.....as our kid juggles 3 huge summer packets, works, goes to required summer meetings for clubs, and tries to enjoy and recoup during the Summer break............

 

[cinabug]

It should be the school's duty to educate, period. They need to stop meddling in the students' lives outside of school. That time would be better spent on teaching math, science, and English.

This argument only floats if math, science, and English were the only subjects in which children could or should be educated. They're not. Kids take art, music, foreign language, and history, to name a few. I certainly hope that no one is arguing that these subjects should be dropped. There is no clear line in the sand as to what areas of education should be included, and there certainly is no line that says that kids cannot be educated to have a good work ethic and to give back to the community in which they live.

If the school puts an "hours" requirement on the duty then a child is being forced to trade their time for the requirement in order to receive their diploma. Unless this occurs during the school day at a facility/location provided by the school then IMO they should not mandate it.

The school is saying a child must do something for nothing outside of the school day/classroom/homework scope etc. IMO this is not like gym class, a school provides a teacher, a track/gym in order for a student to partake of gym class. Does the school provide the ways/means/transportation/supervision etc. for a "service" requirement and is it done during the normal school day like gym would be?

All sorts of homework occur outside of the school, outside of the school facility, and without school supervision. Yes, students trade time and effort for their diplomas.

My kids have sports practice, band practice, they have jobs, they are in all AP/Honor's classes, have very active social lives, etc. and find PLENTY of time to volunteer.

No of course not, a student should only need academics to graduate from school. Forcing students to perform community service in order to receive their diploma is just another example of schools trying to indoctrinate our kids in what they want them to be/do, just one more attempt at taking control away from parents and giving it to themselves. They need to stay out of the personal choices of families and stick to reading, writing and arithmetic.

The fallacy here is that schools are just there to provide for the wants and needs of your child. Free public education in this country was always intended to benefit our nation as a whole by producing an educated citizenry. Those citizens are expected to be good workers and intelligent voters who give back to the society in which they live. Like it or not, public schools were always intended to indoctrinate children. Public education is supposed to create a standard that will give the most benefit to society as a whole. That necessarily means that choosing to participate in public education may conflict with some personal choices of families. If you are a Neo-Nazi, for instance, you can probably count on public schools indoctrinating your children with ideologies with which you do not agree. If you don't like it, you are allowed to home school them and indoctrinate them with your own beliefs, but since those beliefs will not benefit the society as whole, you should be footing the bill.

Clearly, our society is trending toward requiring some community service, because we believe it is in the best interest of us all to do so. Your friends and neighbors are paying for your child's education, so you are not the only one who gets a say in what that education entails.