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Should high school students be required to volunteer in community service projects?
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| Yes | 50% | 2480 votes | Total: 4968 votes | |
| No | 50% | 2488 votes |
Yes
by Francis Harris
Created on: February 21, 2010 Last Updated: February 22, 2010
Requiring student participation in wider "real community" projects, under appropriate supervision, will help the young person's all-round development.
Naturally projects should not expose young people to untoward dangers. They should be well supervised; within the abilities of the young person; provide the young person scope to expand their knowledge and skills; allow them to serve or perform a useful role; connect with chosen people from the community and come to be a genuine part of community, integrated with it, not segregated from it; and projects should be of nature that there is scope to "get it wrong" and learn.
Many community projects are possible for a wide range of ages and abilities: from helping plant trees and vegetation with a land care group, to doing behind the scenes chores at a drop-in center; from entertaing isolated folk in nursing homes, to doing a working bee at the local playgroup; from teaching "computers" or technology to retirees, to learning languages or crafts from community groups; from helping with gardening, to doing yard tidying. Older young people may even benefit from "work experience" in offices and shops, garages and trade places.
So what benefits are there for the young person?
1. The young person gains new skills, insight, knowledge and abilities in a practical setting.
2. The social integration of young people goes someway to alleviating the generation gap - that is the breakdown in communication and understanding - between people of different generations that has fragmented communities across the world. Young people are brought into relationship and connection with people and groups they would otherwise not meet.
3. The young person has a chance to integrate with the community, develop (supervised) relationships with mature role models, exposing themselves to positive examples that augment their narrow world of immature peers.
4. The young person is extended to think and act beyond self-interest and personal gain; and do something positive for the community. They have a chance to develop a sense of responsibility for the community in a way that would not be possible if they were not a part of it, working for it, and supporting it directly.
5. The young person extends their sense of personal identity coming to see themselves as a part of the wider community. Even minimal acceptance and belonging in this wider community is so valuable to rival the world of gangs and fickle peer acceptance that otherwise dominates their lives.
6. The young person will grow in self-worth realising they have much to give the community - especially if they are sharing a skill or knowledge - and should be empowered to realise that they have a positive role to play in helping others, so helping their sense of self-worth and value.
7. Many projects are simply fun to do, giving the young person a break from the classroom and the artificial routine that otherwise dominates their lives,
While it make take some organizing to ensure that suitable tasks are found for particular students, that the young person is always safe and community engagement is properly supervised, the benefits for students themselves and the wider community abound.
Learn more about this author, Francis Harris.
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No
by Carol Gioia
Created on: April 27, 2008
High school students should not have mandatory volunteer requirements. The very nature of volunteer community service is that the activity is voluntary and not mandated by the school. Making community service compulsory negates the intended purpose.
It is advisable for high school students to be introduced to the benefits of participation in community service. This is accomplished in most high schools today through elective courses of service learning curriculum.
Service learning classes are often confused with volunteer community service because often the companies involved are geared toward fulfilling specific needs in the community. The companies might range from local nursing homes to city park and recreation departments.
The service learning class differs from voluntary community service because there is a benefit compensation component for both the business and the students.
Local organizations and companies partner with the school district to offer short term learning opportunities to students who will earn class credit. The volunteering activity is only one aspect of the mutual learning service program.
The emphasis in the classroom curriculum is lessons on fulfilling civic duty and simultaneously learning about the environment and global responsibility. For example, a class could be assigned to pick up all the litter and trash along a river bank. The trash would be cataloged and analyzed for it's potential for adverse effects on natural resources.
The class will offer guest speakers and the students will be involved in individual and group projects, keeping journals and writing essays on their findings. The class lesson plans lay the groundwork for the projects, but much of the cooperative learning activity is accomplished off site. The students learn skills in leadership, team building and how to meaningful engage with their surroundings.
The service learning class is an excellent vehicle for instilling in students the spirit of volunteering which they will carry with them into their adult lives. Learning the needs of their community and the various companies and organizations existing to meet those needs is invaluable for future activist behavior by former students on behalf of the community.
Since service learning classes take place as part of the school agenda it is beneficial and convenient for high school students to participate. Asking students to take on volunteer activiity in addition to their high school schedule is inappropriate.
In order to be well rounded individuals equipped to go out into the world and be optimally productive, students need to have the time to participate group sports and clubs, as well as have the opportunity for a social life and after school part time paid employment if needed or desired. Additional mandatory community service volunteer projects during the high school years could result in "burn out" and be detrimental to the student's scholastic performance and personal well being.
It is not unusual for some civic minded students to take on volunteer work in lieu of after school activities or during their summer break. This is all the more admirable because of the true "volunteer" aspect of their participation.
Volunt eerism cannot be mandated.
Learn more about this author, Carol Gioia.
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