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Add to FavoritesPerhaps the greatest gift we could give to our youth is that of mandatory volunteer work. Yes, it's an oxymoron 'mandatory' and 'voluntary' but most of our young adults don't know any better to be able to make the choice of being a volunteer or not. Not to take away from the intelligence of our young, but they simply do not have the life experience to know what volunteering can do for our communities. Nor do they know what they will get back in return.
Todays teengers have excellent 'taking' skills but extremely poor giving skills. 'Mum can I have a laptop?', or 'Dad can you buy me a Wii for Christmas?', 'I want a Starbucks extra-hot non-fat, easy whip, half-sweet grande mocha. Oh, and I'll have a pumpkin scone to go.' On and on it goes. The average North American teen does not even know where to begin when it comes to giving back. How about we start in the schools with volunteer programs for teenagers?
Can you imagine what kind of change our communities would see if our children volunteered on a regular basis? It's an opportunity for teens to explore life and see the world with a different set of eyes. With all the organizations and hospitals in need of volunteers, the experience for our youth would be vast.They can see the lives of the poor who line up at the food bank or the local Salvation Army, the lives of the sick in our extended care units, the lives of the terminally ill children who lie in hospital beds, the lives of drug addicts and criminals, the lives of those paralyzed by violence, the lives of those who are grieving the loss of a loved one due to gang violence. Not only would they be giving back to the community but they would also be educated in a way that no school,teacher or parent could ever educate. The experience is the education. Volunteering would open their eyes to the real world before they even step out of highschool. It would help our young make better choices perhaps even reducing gang violence, school shootings and drug addiction.
Our North American Society shelters teenagers and children too much. We give our kids all the luxuries in the world but we forget to show them real life. Television, radio and video games are not going to teach our children what life is about. Quite the contrary. Television portrays an image of 'everything will always be OK.' TV promotes a superficial life. Most video games encourage violence. Our children have become immune to images of blood and gore. Born with a silver spoon in their mouths, our teenagers no longer respect our communities as is apparent with the increase in violent activity and incomprehensible destruction by young adults of today. Volunteering would at least give them an opportunity to try and understand what really goes on in the world beyong the footsteps of their school and home. It would promote teens to make safe and healthy choices.
School as it is now is simply text book learning with some emphasis on hands on experience through co-operative work programs. Though co-operative work programs are beneficial, volunteering would open a whole new door. How many yound adults walk out of highschool on graduation day without a clue of what they want to do when they 'grow-up'. Volunteering may help our students discover a passion that would have otherwise taken a lifetime to discover.
In addition, school is boring to most students. How many teenagers do you know would say 'I love school.'. Volunteering would spice things up and may help bring back the love for learning. The answer to 'What did you do at school today?' might be a little different than the usual 'Nothing.' or "Not much.'.
Volunteering programs would promote caring teenagers who would beocome compassionate adults. No calculus, no Shakespeare could ever teach basic human qualities of love, care and compassion.
Learn more about this author, Anisa Chaudhry.
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No
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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