[Voluntary]

Quote by: Derach I fully support any school district that enforces community service as part of graduation requirements.

Enforcement is not a voluntary action, and thus not community service in its purest sense. It is simply an obligation.

First of all, there are tons of ways to give some time to the community. In my district, varsity athletes can referee/ump little league games for credit. Most of these HS athletes benefitted from a little league program, and its a way for them to give back to a program they benefitted from.

I see that you are from MA. I went to HS in MA. Compulsory CS would have been just another loophole to jump through and a waste of my time in order to graduate.

Between school and sports, I was at school from 7-5 year round. When I turned 16, I worked on the weekends. In the summer I worked 48 hours a week delivering furniture. In my free time, I was playing sports and chasing tail.

Have you ever delivered a couch or a refrigerator to a third floor apartment in Worcester during the sweltering summer? Instead of community service, get a job. No one in my situation should be required to mandatory community service.

Members of band or chorus can give benefit concerts to the elderly center or the elementary school. Members of tech-ed can donate time to work on school buses or build projects for the school.

Some schools do this. I doubt it counts towards community service.

Others can tutor.

Helping out your fellow classmates is an act of compassion. Why does the state need to enforce this?

Volunteering is not easy. I recently volunteered to teach people math in order to get their GED, but I had to decline. I am very adept at advanced math. In order to volunteer, I had to meet people at a supervised area at specific times. I don't have a car and I don't have time to commute during their specific times. I offered to meet people in public places near my residence or even answer questions over e-mail. They rejected my offers.

Sometimes giving back to the community is not easy.

Education doesn't start and stop in the classroom, and I think encouraging a spirit of involvment in community (usually in ways that students have already participated in as youths) instills pride in your community and a value of good citizenship.

Ok Dewey, you need to stop your nonsense. Schooling is for education, not manufacturing of good citizens.

Very shallow and narrow minded to think of this program as slave-labor for the poor abused high schoolers who are 'forced' to give back to a system from which they have been enjoying the fruits of for 12 yrs.

The fruits in which their parents pay into via property taxes? BTW, education is compulsory in this nation. It is not like children have a choice.