Community Service for Students

487 Words2 Pages
An ongoing debate that seems to be at the center of much attention is whether community service should be mandatory in America's high schools. Numerous schools across the country have mandated that in order for their students to graduate, they must complete a predetermined amount of community service. This action though has been met with opposition from various groups who have denounced its mandatory enforcement. Proponents of mandatory community service argue that it helps build leadership skills in students and better prepares them for future jobs in which leadership is valued. It also serves as a symbiotic relationship between the volunteer and the recipient. This can be attributed to the fact that participation in community service simultaneously helps diversify an individual's college application while providing free, beneficial services to the recipient. Research has also shown that on average, students involved in any sort of community service graduate at a higher rate than those who are not. Inner city school districts such as Chicago, Seattle and Washington D.C have noticed this trend and as a result have made it a mandatory graduation requirement. Some politicians in New York City are pushing for the city's school system to follow suit though the Board of Ed has refused to do so. Opponents of mandatory community service express the belief that community service isn't a subject that should be forced upon students. True volunteering lies in an individual's will and drive to help others and enforcing it eliminates that drive. By forcing students to do community service, school officials are essentially doing the equivalent of the mandatory system practiced in penitentiaries across the nation. Furthermore, by implementing mandatory community service, students are burdened with yet an extra criteria to meet in order to graduate. Many students seem to agree
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