Pros And Cons Of Mandatory Community Service

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In an article written by Linda Saslow titled High School Mandating Community Service for Graduation, she mentions the many pros to mandatory community service. Saslow mentions school districts like Roslyn and Hewlett-Woodmere (1994, para 3) that have started requiring high school students to complete a certain number of community service hours in order to graduate high school. Their goal is to give “kids the opportunity for new experiences” (Saslow, 1994, para 4). Through research conducted by the school districts, they have come to the conclusion that students who would’ve been “too shy to volunteer have admitted that they were glad they had been forced”. This is good because it’s bringing students together and really opening them up to new …show more content…

Usually people volunteer to help out the community and if school districts began to mandate that, then is it really community service? Community service should be done genuinely and for the goodness of others. High schools like Mineola High School have started giving out awards and certificates to students who have helped them win a grant for their high school based on community service hours (Saslow, 1994, para 30). This completely changes the meaning behind community service. Students begin to see it as a competition so they can win the most awards for community service and that service is no longer done for the goodness of others. Instead, it’s being done for selfish reasons which contradicts the reason why high schools want to require community service. Lastly, requiring community service in order for high school students to graduate gives the school district 's power to determine what is considered community service and what is not. Would the schools consider babysitting community service or would they only accept service done at community centers? Giving school districts the power to decide whether a deed counts as community service or not would most likely bring a lot of bigger problems into their districts. Community service really has no limitations and students can give to the community in a lot of different ways, not just what the school

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