Posted on 05/04/2013 9:54:14 PM PDT by MacMattico
So it seems daughters school is stressing "service hours" (volunteer hours) as the only way to get into a decent college. Daughter has high grades in every class, has a full course load, band, two varsity sports and a couple of clubs. More then I ever did and I went to a respectable institution of higher learning! And... Gasp... May even have to get a job in a year or so when she wants that car she keeps talking about!
But no! Not enough! Now the school demands, and backs it up with college admissions material, that kids must have at least 300 hours of community services by graduation. My daughter has helped in the community but is not interested in the liberal nonsense being demanded. For instance, a group of kids sat out in make shift cardboard box "houses" overnight sneaking in pizza and fooling around and got 8 hours of community service for "learning what it's like to be homeless". Seriously! Daughters Guidance Counselor even said "In this world where colleges are taking an holistic approach at admissions, as a non-minority middle class kid you can't just expect to coast by on your excellent grades and a few sports and clubs." Shouldn't you be helping others because you want to, not because the school system demands we create more liberal community organizers? I feel like they're pushing kids to lie and make up fake service hours!
The hours are pretty typical for Asian schools. My 11 yo Thai niece has about the same schedule and school is only a 5 minute drive away. Other kids that have to take a school bus get up before dawn.
BTW, I never hear any complaints about the hours from her or her friends.
Well, we like to have family time and not just ship the kids off to school and have them come home and do homework, eat, maybe talk to a friend and go to bed. But that’s basically what it’s become before the community service hours are even added in. If it’s a winter sports night, sometimes she gets home between 10:00 and 11:00 if it’s an away game, and she loves her sports! There are only so many weekends left before college, and between homework, sports and music practice we want to spend time with our daughter. No wonder families aren’t as close these days.
I performed 200 hours of ‘voluntary’ service in high school. Made no difference to the 2 universities I attended. So, why do it?
I spent tie tutoring 1st-2nd grade ‘urban’ youths who said ‘de’ instead of ‘the and worked in a soup kitchen with convicts. I didn’t get anything out of it.
Wait until they are forced*volunteerª at abortion clinics to graduate
Bravo to your daughter and her awesome parents!!!
My guess is if you lived with your niece you would hear the complaints. Trust me, my kids ONLY complained in the privacy of home where they could vent the frustration at what is expected these days.
Childhood comes ONCE, the race to the top these days is far worse than 20-30 years ago.
And to the poster who started this thread, this volunteering is mandatory here in IL. Forcing the top tier kids to seek a project they can spent even more time on is another example of unintended consequences...I’ve watched enough of these kids take a completely different attitude of the ‘needy’ after being forced to participate.
Of course I live with her or I wouldn't have posted that.
So sorry, didn’t pick up that bit of info in your post.
Enjoy
It’s not all bad. I think its turning a lot of kids into conservatives. Don’t let them do the fun stuff, make them work at things like soup kitchens or events where they give free food to people. My friends kid got a good lesson working at a food give away things. He got to see the dregs of humanity shambling in fat fat and fat, being incredibly rude and disrespectful, demanding help bringing food to their car despite being perfectly fit and when a legitimate old lady with a walker is in obvious need, constantly complaining about obviously fake disabilities , taking more stuff than was offered. I asked him what percentage of the people there were in his opinion legitimate needs, and he estimated less than 10%. He came away from all of these things totally disgusted, especially at the lack of manners and sense of entitlement.
40 hours over 4 years? 10 hours a year? That doesn’t seem to be very difficult requirement to meet.
You got nothing out of it?
No insights?
No observations?
No lessons learned?
community service hours were required when I went to school many yrs ago
Consider this. College is rapidly becoming a very bad investment. In time and money. Unless she hopes to be an engineer or MBA or something that will pay.
I wonder how they will feel about “volunteering” when they are older. It’s hard to find people interested in service clubs such as the Lions today. These service clubs are dying out in my area.
Kids just might think they did their time and as far as they’re concerned, nothing more is required of them.
Mandated volunteering is just free labor
Children should be able to volunteer for things they support and believe in
And both Dems and GOP support a lot of these EduCommunist programs.... No Child Left Behind...Goals 2000...CommonCore are all bipartisan
Find a college/university that does not push free labor
Could you get involved as a family in something you all enjoy? Food drive or baby-needs drive at your church? Volunteering at an athletic event? Some sort of project in your neighborhood?
my youngest son went to the military base and volunteered to help run the air museum....
Wonder if they’d count helping out around the house.
“Clean your room or no college for you”
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