(Should High School students have to complete community service?)
An old tradition that has been forgotten
I remember growing up the idea of having to complete community service to graduate high school was passed around by classmates. My Mom told me that all of the volunteer work I did at the church we attended counted, and I logged those hours and turned them into my school. When I graduated, I was honored with an award and acknowledged as the “Riverside County Golden Citizen” award. It was cool to know that all of my volunteer work meant something. Come to find out it wasn’t a requirement that I had to do community service, it was more of a suggestion, but I learned a lot from it. Passing out toys to the less fortunate at Christmas time, turkey during Thanksgiving, Community Clean up days where we just walked around the town picking up trash, volunteering in children’s ministries and so much more. They taught me the value of helping people and to always respect where other people come from because not everyone has the same struggle.
Community service requirements date back to the late 70’s various school districts have approached it differently over the years, and nothing has seemed to stick. Is requiring students to complete a certain amount of hours of community service to graduate a dated idea? Or do you think it could be beneficial to our community? In our last Question For The Community, we had an excellent response and conversations with many of you! This will become a bi-weekly article. In between weeks, we will print answers from the community about the previous week’s questions. So don’t be shy, let your opinion be heard. The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle cares about your opinion and would love to print some of the answers if you would like your response printed, please email [email protected]
I think that community service should be a requirement to graduate. However, I feel like the school should regulate it. How would this work? I feel like kids these days would benefit in a two-semester elective course called Life Skills/Community Outreach in semester one they would learn about things like Paying Taxes, How To Register A Vehicle, How To Make A Resume and other things that will help prepare you for life after High School. In semester two, the class will plan and organize a community service project. This project can be big or small. Students will be graded on attendance and participation. I feel like a class like this will help prepare students for life after school and help show them the benefit of giving back to the community. The position of the classes could even be flipped if the school district felt like that was a better idea. Either way, our community and students at the local high schools could benefit from the idea of a community service class.
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