Should High School Students be Required to Complete Community Service Hours?

[5Henry]

Community service is unpaid work that is meant to help people in a community. Examples of community service are tutoring younger students, volunteering at a community center, and helping elderly or disabled people with yard work or chores around their homes. Some states require that students complete a certain amount of hours in order to graduate and others do not. Certain groups in high school such as Student Council and National Honor Society require their members to help in their community, but it is not required of all the students.

 

Volunteering to help people in a community makes students good citizens and can make them feel better about themselves. It teaches them social and leadership skills. Students learn how to do new tasks and they may even become interested in a career working with the community. Also, it can help students stay physicaly healthy and increases self-esteem. Community service helps better the community and the people in it. 

 

However, some students see it as a punishment since they do not have the option. They want to do other things with their free time and it can take away from sports or extracurricular activities. Some people do not find community service meaningful and do not get satisfaction from helping others. It can also add to their stress and be harmful to their mental health and cause poor grades.

 

I believe high school students should be required to complete community service hours in order to graduate, but I think the amount of hours should be low. It will give students the experience of helping others in their community and it will not take away a lot of time from other activities. If they decide they like it, they can do more.

 

Questions:

Do you think students should be required to do community service?

Do you think community service makes you a better person?

Do you do any kind of community service?

 

Sources:

https://habitatbroward.org/blog/why-community-service-is-important/#:~:text=Community%20Service%20Helps%20Connect%20to,are%20less%20fortunate%20than%20us.

https://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/2011/08/should_high_school_students_be.html

https://brilliantio.com/why-should-volunteering-not-be-mandatory/

https://blog.prepscholar.com/what-is-community-service

 

 

 

[5Henry]

I think your comment was good and I do agree with your point about students in clubs having to do 1-3 hours of community service.

[7Manlluli]

i would say that this would not be a bad idea for us highschool students to complete community service hours, it would help us develop important skills, learn about our community, and foster a sense of empaty and social responsability.

[5Henry]

I agree with you about community service being good for highschoolers to have to complete a certain amount of hours to graduate. I think that it would help students with their responsibilitys. 

[3ava]

I don't think that high school students should be required to participate in community service. Most high schoolers are in other activites like sports, clubs, etc. They also have work after school so some students wouldn't have time for it anyways.

[3Kaden]

I dont think that high schoolers should be forced to do community service, but if they choose to it would look good for their college resamay if they so choose to go. also the high schoolers could become a better person by doing community service because they do it for no profit and no cause but to help their community.

[5Henry]

I think your comment was good and I do agree with the point you made about community service being good for their college resume.

[5Jack]

I don't think high schoolers should be forced to do community service. However, I think it's nice that if they do community service, they can get scholar ships. This shows if you're willing to work and help others, you will get good out of it.

[5Levi]

I don't think that high school students should be required to do community service because a lot of students already participate in clubs that require community service. I do think community service makes you a better person because you are helping your community.

[4Grant]

I do think community service makes you a better person. You get to see more of the community, and depending on the job that you are doing you get to do a job that you may not like. This helps you grow a sense of respect for those who do these jobs on a daily. I have taken part in many different service projects, like tombstone cleaning, putting wreaths on tombstones, etc. 

[5Henry]

I think that you comment was good, and I did really like the point you made about those who may not like doing a job within community service, could help them grow a sence of respect for those who do.