[Derach]

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

I know it's not volunteerism in it's purest form ... it should be a requirement for graduation .... no different than having to actually be present for a given % of school days is mandatory for graduation. You are also required to take a certain # of english and math classes, and 'extras' (phys ed, tech ed, etc). The fact that community service as a volutary act is not the same as requiring seniors to do something civic oriented is symantic ... of course it isn't real voluntarism. But it does provide an example to the kids who are 'forced' into that participation the sacrifice that true volunteers make to do the same thing (ump little league, sponsor dances and game suppers, provide crossing guards, etc).

Quote by: Voluntary 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.

stop whining. We all have 24 hrs in a day, how you choose to spend them is your business. Most HS seniors have study periods and other time during school that can be used for this service. I'd rather have a kid using his free time working with middle schoolers on a project, or painting backboards, or lining fields than sleeping in the library during study hall.

Quote by: Voluntary 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. .

I'll one up ya ... try delivering a piano to a third story house in Cambridge, where you get sued if you scratch the floor. I've also hung sheet rock in every rat hole in Boston, where I was lucky to park 1 mile or less from the job. The adults that used to coach and ref your little league games had jobs AND volunteered so you could have a positive athletic experience. Spending a couple of weekends out on a field with other youths would provide you with some perspective and knowledge that would be more useful to you than humping couches around Worcester. Besides, you have your whole life to work 80+ hr weeks if you choose ... but if a community decides they want you to spend your senior summer doing a litttle less moving and a little more giving to the rest of the community, I don't think you'll be worse off for it, but better in the long run.

Quote by: Voluntary Some schools do this. I doubt it counts towards community service. .

it should

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

because the COMMUNITY (I don't think it should be mandated at the state or local level) will benefit from exposing students to the voluteering that is depended on for all the benefits of the town or city to be realized.

Quote by: Voluntary 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. .

Exactly why HS seniors should be made aware of how many people devote time, energy and money for things they enjoy (and sometimes need).

Quote by: Voluntary Sometimes giving back to the community is not easy. .

agreed

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

A quality education goes beyond answering questions on a standardized test. Its purpose is to provide an opportunity for the bulk of the citizens within a community to take care of themselves and exist within a group of other people in a way that does not harm the other people in it.

Quote by: Voluntary 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.

First of all, everybody pays property taxes, parents of public school students, privately educated ones, home schooled ones, and people that don't have kids at all. Secondly, parents have a plethora of choices as to how to eduate their children ... not the least of which is to choose to live in a community with public schools that conform to their values pertaining to graduation requirments (or curriculum, or extra-curricular possibilities, or college preparation).

Don't act as if every school in America (or even Massachusetts) is an assembly line for kids. Local schools are supposed to be able to determine their own criteria and set their own standards. The right of communities to self determine and self define their educational system is a critical and endangered right that should be protected. There is no place for the federal or state government to place mandates or restrictions on community service for individual school boards. That's the crux of the argument ... local empowerment of school policy.