Do you think public high schools should require its students to complete service

1. 59

   ktrappposted 13 years ago

   Do you think public high schools should require its students to complete service hours?
   
   I know some religious-based schools require students to complete a certain number of service hours each semester and clubs like National Honor Society also may require service to be completed; but do you think all students in public high schools should be required to participate in community service?

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2. 63

   Shinkickerposted 13 years ago

   Yeah why not, all part of a broad-based curriculum

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3. 68

   CrescentSkiesposted 13 years ago

   As a student of a school that did require it I can strongly advise against it. The second I got out of high school to this very point in time I have not completed a single hour of non-required community service. Why? Because I learned to hate it during High School!
   
   If you make teens do something like that all it does is make them hate it for life. If I didn't have to do community service in high school I probably would be doing more now.

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4. 75

   wildernessposted 13 years ago

   Certainly not!  To join a religious school or the honor society is a choice; going to school is required by law.  The force a student to work as unpaid labor "for charity" is extremely unethical and probably illegal. 
   
   It is one thing for a farmer, for instance, to put their own child to work on the family farm for free; it is quite another for society to force the same kind of thing out of every child.
   
   It might be good for the child, it might be good for the community and it is certainly good for the owner of whatever they are working on, but it is extremely abhorrent to think of MY government using forced slave labor of our children.

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5. 58

   ElleBeeposted 13 years ago

   I think if the program is well structured the benefits can be immense!  It benefits the community of course, but also the students.  The first thing i think is important is to call it "service work" or "Service learning" as opposed to volunteering - students will hone in pretty quickly on the fact that their service is not "voluntary."  I also think there can be a benefit of tying the hours to a specific class like English (write a paper on your experience), civics or something similar, so it isn't just random hours with no other connection.  Another thing I think is important is to give students a variety of options for their service - students are much more likely to resent the hours, if there told "volunteer at this event, at this time, on this day" etc.

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