To most, 100 service hours sounds like a preposterous amount of extra work to add onto the already rigorous and stressful schedule of a high school student. However, this amount of time is insignificant when put into perspective of the four years the student has to complete this. Although this is a large time commitment, if a student chooses to begin completing these hours their freshman year and evenly disperses the hours over their 4 years, it will not only be easier but also teaches very important life skills such as organization and scheduling. Students should be required to complete 100 community service hours before their high school graduation. A major benefit to requiring service hours is that it has the power to expose high school …show more content…
Inner city kids who struggled with school and whose parents could not afford a tutor came here in order to improve their skills. Within these two organizations, I formed relationships with people and heard stories that truly changed my perspective. I was not aware of the hardships that people within my very own community endure on a daily basis. A mere fifteen minutes away from my house was a whole new world. Not only did my willingness to volunteer affect me, but also those around me. Some families relied on the food that I served at Saint Vincent De Paul. Kids used the tutoring and advice I gave them for homework and study skills that they can implement themselves at home and school to better their lives and open numerous opportunities for themselves in the future. My examples are only two of endless positive impacts that volunteering can have on a community. The last benefit that requiring 100 service hours can have on a kid is often forgotten about and is secondary to the volunteering itself. The actual process of completing 100 hours of service through four years requires planning ahead, organization, and dedication, all of which are pertinent skills that are useful for
Growing up, my parents and other influential figures around me modelled the importance of community service through their continual volunteer work and dedication to improving the world around them. Whether it be participation in a well-attended project or persistent contribution to a helpful organization, those aforementioned individuals were formative in guiding me towards a path filled with opportunities for having an impact on my community.
Imagine a typical teen, they have a job, homework, sports, and other extracurriculars. They don’t get home till late at night and they are exhausted. This teen can take much more and thankfully they are about to graduate, but wait the school wants them to fit in one hundred of community service into that schedule in order to graduate. How on earth is this busey teen suppose to do that with all that they have going on? Students should not have to do one hundred hours of community service to graduate high school.
This school should not require 100 hours of community service as a graduation requirement because of the busy lives of teenagers, the pressure of graduation, and loss of enthusiasm for community service. Schools should encourage community service but this is not the way to do it.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen , my name is Gary Gidhay. I am here today to convince you that the minimum requirement of 40 volunteer hours is not only helpful to your community, but it is also essential to the development and health of the average teen. Now the average teen is bombarded with distractions, some of these being social networks, friends,family affairs/problems,video games, and even relationships in general. Some adults may think that these can be easily avoided , however those people are incredibly wrong. Being a teen in this generation is like nothing anyone will ever experience , we have everything at our fingertips , we have so many things to do it is almost impossible to get anything productive done. This is just one reason why the 40 mandatory community service hours are incredibly important to teens. These hours teach us things that if we were not forced to do , we would never learn and would make it very hard for us to strive in a typical work environment. We learn skills that we will use for the rest of our...
Kim, in the United States, grades are not the only factor in evaluating school applicants and job candidates. From Rhodes Scholar selections to college applications, excellence in other areas such as leadership, volunteer activities, sports and arts is equally important (p82-90). In American schools, students are encouraged to do volunteer work. So much so that many schools have guidelines for how much time students are expected to spend serving in the community. Children learn the value of giving from an early age. Volunteer activities is one way Americans feel a part of things and share the goal of serving and contributing to build their communities. From neighborhood watch programs to environmental issues, Americans do not wait for the government to initiate action: they take action to bring about the changes they desire. Therefore, Americans view volunteer work as a way to teach children and young adults values such as cooperation and teamwork, dedication and work ethics, equality and social justice, leadership, generosity and compassion for
We’ve all heard the phrase “Charity begins at home.” This statement holds very true in my case, not because we needed help but rather because we were taught at an early age to provide help whenever possible. In our current economy there are many people not just in our community but throughout the world and beyond that are struggling. I was fortunate to grow up in a household with two loving parents who shared the importance of fundamental beliefs and values. Cynthia Street, the street I grew up on, was a comfortable middle class neighborhood that served as my first perspective of American life. Through my experiences in my neighborhood and also my interaction with my church family at Central Christian Church in Newark, I learned the importance of outreach work.
Lastly, graduation is a big part of anyone’s life, and disallowing it can be devastating, especially for a very small problem. If a student works countless hours getting straight A’s every year, they should not be denied graduation because they didn’t work service hours at their local laundromat. Forcing community service hours is completely redefining what graduation is, since it used to be that the student excelled enough in each subject to get the passing grades, which isn’t the case when students are concurrently forced to do worthless
That our memory isn’t veridical is not a novel idea. This means that we don’t perfectly remember everything that we have seen or experienced in the past. Broadly speaking, there are two fundamental memory errors that occur in everyday life. One is forgetting events that have occurred, and the other is remembering something that did not transpire (or misremembering them in the way that they occurred). The first error, forgetting, is very common, and needs no explanation. We can all think of instances where our memory has failed us. However, the latter error is a more curious scenario. Often times, when a friend mentions a funny episode that happened at a party you were at, you might incorporate that into your memory even though you yourself may have not witnessed it. In fact, you may even go as far as to visualizing the event in your head. This begs the question, how could a memory that seems so clear and vivid in one’s head be anything but completely accurate? And more importantly, why do we make such errors in remembering events?
Requiring students to participate in service projects promotes academic success. Even when they are mandatory, the benefits from the hours that the students would complete, are evident. In a case investigating the validity of service as a violation of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, the court came to the conclusion that mandatory community service is more “educational than exploitative”(“Involuntary volunteers?”). So why is it that the majority still refuses to accept this mandate? Education is what has established the superiority of nations worldwide, so what the public must see is that these service hours are fundamental to the growth of students. As students continue to study at school, they create their own goals, but they become difficult to pursue. A study was conducted that came to the conclusion that, “girls who are involved in community service are less likely to get pregnant and less likely to fail in school”(Newquist). Community service would directly affect the likelihood of passing school for a majority of the student body. Ensuring that more students would succeed in school outweighs the argument that this...
In fact, the purpose of school is to educate knowledge and responsibility for future jobs and community positions. So, schools offer a plethora of activities for diverse student bodies. Nearly 80% of students participate in extracurriculars, and 57% of students have activities outside of school every day (“Survey…”). Every student is different; therefore, a broad program should not be forced upon students, especially when diverse extracurriculars are already in place. Additionally, over a quarter of 16 to 19 year olds have jobs (“Unemployment Remains...”). Between extracurriculars, part-time jobs, and academics, young citizens are forced to learn about time management, patience, and hard work. Moreover, students already volunteer on their own. Organizations such as Student Council and the National Honors Society require that their members participate in school or community events. Public service hours also factor into college acceptances and scholarship awards. When students are already learning leadership skills by volunteering on their own, requiring extra volunteer hours can be easily mistaken as a punishment or chore. Most high schoolers have tight schedules. It is even more tasteless to enforce mandatory public service upon students because they are “disadvantaged” (Levine 639). Here, volunteerism sounds more like court-ordered community service than an educational opportunity. Students,
Community service is a common service for people to take care of each other and volunteer. People apply to different community services: soup kitchen, taking care of children and homeless people, clinics, churches, schools, neighbor's house and many countless places to volunteer. Some people really enjoy to work at community services while others do not. These community services can be a punishment for criminals because a court assigns them to do so. However, some people do not agree with community service supporters. While some people believe that there should be a community service requirement for high school and college graduation because students need to learn and have experiences there, they are right; on the other hand, a community service requirement should be allowed for two reasons and not be allowed for another three reasons.
Taking time to volunteer at the many nonprofit organizations, homeless shelters, advocacy centers, philanthropic fundraisers, local schools and child care facilities in the inner city is not always at the forefront of young people’s minds while navigating through their college experiences. But, with a little push from student organizations, local nonprofits and passionate individuals, volunteerism and community change can start to take a front seat and become not just an opportunity, but also a priority in the lives of young people.
Volunteering enables an individual to make a positive impact on his or her community, while empowering the individual to better his or her life. This summer, I had the opportunity to volunteer at many diverse locations. From the hospital to the local library, I truly value my experience and treasure everything it has thought me. Volunteering lets us experience and learn things that we otherwise would not have learned; volunteering opens doors for us that we may not have been able to open before. Volunteering provides us with guidance and tolerance which we may use in the future to aid us in our decisions. At first glance, volunteering may seem to only benefit those who are helped, but on a deeper level, one can realize that volunteering benefits the volunteer as much as, if not more than, those who are helped. Not only does volunteering make a difference in one’s community, but it also helps the volunteer become a smarter, happier, friendlier and more caring individual.
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
Volunteering: The great experience no one can afford to lose. Opposers say, mandatory community service can have several negative effects on students. “Community service hours are impressive additions to college applications and can provide a student with a great sense of accomplishment; however, the mandatory hours will have many negative consequences” (Cydney Hayes, 2012). Many students are barely even passing the regular school curriculum, and opposers believe that adding the additional load of mandatory service hours will discourage teens from even wanting to graduate. Also mandatory service is usually assigned by a court as punishment to delinquents. “In a small number of cases, community service is required by the court system as restitution for delinquent offenses” (Planty and Bozick, 2006).