Volunteering In Public Schools

Words: 631
Pages: 3

If it's mandatory is it really volunteering? High schools around the country are requiring students to complete anywhere from zero to one hundred hours of community service in order to graduate. This topic has raised debate about whether schools should make volunteering mandatory or allow teenagers to make their own decision. High School students should not be required to complete community service hours in order to graduate because students already have busy schedules, will be less motivated to do quality work, and it destroys the meaning behind volunteering. High school students today have busier schedules than ever before and therefore should not be required to complete community service hours. With homework, extracurricular activities and part-time jobs teenagers have to maintain multiple responsibilities at once and don’t always have time to complete required hours. On average teachers give three and a half hours of homework a week and because most students have about six classes, students could have over twenty hours of homework a week …show more content…
If teenagers are being forced to volunteer most students will treat it as just another homework assignment and not give their best effort. If a student actually wants to help then they will appreciate it more and enjoy the process. Also, research shows that older students who were required to complete community service when they were younger are less likely to volunteer later in life (http://www.edweek.org). Students tend to enjoy things more if they get to have some sort a choice in it. For example, forcing someone to complete one-hundred hours of community service will cause them to treat it as an obligation and not an opportunity. Overall, if people enjoy volunteering they will be more likely to give an effort and therefore, should get to choose whether they volunteer or