Benefits Of Public Service

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Public service is a very beneficial activity. It can help teach people life skills, social skills, and responsibility. However, if required, it can bring about issues. If a person is required to perform public service between high school and college, it is possible that he or she might not go back to school or try to get a full time job. Money could also be an issue; if someone is performing public service, he or she cannot have a steady job to earn a sufficient income. According to Dennis Welch (Senior Staff Writer for “The Gallup Organization”), over half of teens between the ages of 13 and 17 were opposed to the thought of a public service requirement as of 2004 (1). While public service can be a benefit to both society and the person doing …show more content…

They may say that this period of time working with the public will help the student decide whether or not he or she wants to go to college. Moreover, this time spent with others in the community can help bring out the compassion in people and possibly change the way we all live for the better. Carol Gilligan says that “People with higher levels of compassion are more likely to define themselves in relation to others and make moral decisions based on the impact those actions have on others” (Hsieh 244). Others may argue that if public service was a requirement for graduating high school students, more people would enlist in the military; this way, the country would not have to worry about having to bring the draft back. Helping the general public is a great way to develop social skills, but the thought of required public service could also raise some …show more content…

In 1998, a study done by the Higher Education Research Institute and the University of California, Los Angeles reported that “30 percent of college undergraduates reported taking a ‘service-learning’ course.” The next year, the percentage of college freshmen who had experience as volunteers jumped all the way up to 75 (Perry 96). Writer Joellen Perry states that between the years of 1984 and 1997, “the number of high schoolers involved in service-learning leapt an astonishing 3,663 percent” (96). This proves that high schools must already know that colleges look at how involved students are in their communities. Therefore, it should not be seen as a necessity to require public service from students before they are allowed to enroll in

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