Posted on 06/10/2007 12:27:17 PM PDT by mukraker
[NOTE - While this was originally intended for the local school district and the local newspaper, it is one more instance where a local school district is actually considering mandating community service as a graduation requirement.]
Am I the only one who sees the contradiction in the words mandatory and volunteerism?
If the Northland Pines School District wants to encourage volunteerism and community service (they call it a Service Learning requirement) in the students of the district, then encourage it. Reward those who do volunteer work, perhaps with additional credits or substitution of community service work for a social studies classroom requirement.
When you mandate an activity, it becomes just another mandatory requirement. It abrogates any sense of self-worth or feeling of satisfaction one gets when helping others, which, it seems, is the underlying purpose behind this proposed requirement. Mandating such service strips away all sense of giving of one's self for it's own reward.
Am I the only one who can see the irony in a school district that seeks to mandate community service as a graduation requirement as a means of instilling a sense of achievement and self worth among it’s students while at the same time the court system imposes community service as a punishment for those who break the law? You can bet this irony will not be lost on the students.
If you want to encourage community involvement, then recognize and reward it when it's shown. But don't punish those who choose not to practice in such generosity of self.
The Vilas County News Review’s editorial writers speak of “keeping alive the spirit of volunteerism that blossomed after World War II.” It was based on a strong sense of community. It also came from within, not from a mandate.
The World War II generation saw first hand the differences between freedom and tyranny. They fought to preserve our freedom. They fought against tyrannical oppression, against governments that sought to impose strict mandates governing social behaviors among their people.
Freedom also means the freedom to choose not to participate in something. Freedom doesn’t mandate.
And, yes, it is a liberal/conservative point, when you come right down to it. Forced volunteerism is just another feel-good policy that hopes to instill a certain value in children, in the hope that it will teach the kids a lesson. It's a well-intentioned policy that has no way to measure the results or the consequences of success or failure.
Just because a school district has the authority to mandate certain graduation requirements doesn’t mean it should do so. Would you be willing to mandate a work requirement in the graduation requirements? Should a child complete 40 hours of work at some job in order to graduate? Justifying this proposal by saying there are many tasks that need to be performed in the community comes dangerously close to endorsing involuntary servitude.
“But some colleges have a service learning requirement for admission.” So the students who choose those colleges bear the burden of fulfilling those requirements for admission. Not all students will choose to go to college. Should the students not going to college be forced to complete college entrance requirements in order to graduate from high school?
And just because other schools have chosen to mandate volunteerism in their curricula doesn’t make it right. This bureaucratic mentality of keeping up with the Joneses usually isn’t a good idea, especially for taxpayers. You don’t allow your kids to get away with something just by telling you “Everyone does it.” When something’s wrong, it’s wrong, even if everyone’s doing it.
Why not also require 40 hours of attendance at religious services? Oops, wait, no, I forgot. Schools are subject to that whole separation-of-church-and-state thing (even though, contrary to popular belief, it’s not in the Constitution). A school is allowed to teach about religion, but not actually teach a religion. So why not do the same with a class in community service and volunteering, a class that would show the value of volunteering without mandating it?
I’m reminded of the Clinton program called AmeriCorps. Clinton was a big fan of John Kennedy’s Peace Corps. Clinton was always obsessed with his own legacy, and wanted his name attached to a similar big government program of public service. So he sold Congress the idea that the American taxpayers should pay people for their volunteer services.
Think about that statement. Paying people for volunteer service. Almost sounds like a job. It, too, was sold to the taxpayers with an education component in the mix, to help people pay for college.
What ever happened to the idea of volunteer service for it’s own rewards?
There are many ways children learn about society's values. But it's not the job of a school to instill those values. It's the job of parents to do so.
It’s your job as your child’s parent, just as it was your parents' job, to instill your values in your children. It’s not the job of the school district. There is a profound difference between what parents teach to their children and what schools teach. There is a difference between Dad's law and society's law.
Encourage community service but don't mandate it.
"What do criminals and Maryland high-school seniors have in common?"
Answer: "They both get out by doing community service."
Mandatory and volunteer are contradictory concepts. Of course that’s no problem for the left, which is used to holding two contradictory concepts in their little brains at the same time.
Q: I'D LIKE MY CHILD TO BE PC. WHAT CAN I DO?
Well, for one thing, we should forcibly encourage students to volunteer their time with philanthropies. Also, we should re-emphasize non-Western perspectives on history. Finally, we should re-structure tests and quizzes to reflect cultural biases.
Let’s call it what it is: mandatory volunteerism = slavery. When one is forced to labor for someone else, it is slavery. Hmm, so is paying taxes so the government can give your money to somebody else.
The teachers should regard successful academic achievement by its students a “community service”.
Are so many kids are failing to graduate high school because too much valuable teaching time is allocated to social engineering agendas such as health, sex, field trips and assemblies???
Most of the Ravens do community service too, to avoid going back to prison.
My son attacked the issue as an unconstitutional (13th amendment violation) imposition of involuntary servitude.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
My son argued that there was no crime committed, no due process and no conviction. It is unconstitutional to impose involuntary servitude as a requirement for graduation.
“Let’s call it what it is: mandatory volunteerism = slavery.”
For pointing out the truth the government liberals will want to imprison you and the Church will want to excommunicate you. The rest of us will praise you.
Instead of making those kids who have worked hard enough as it is to earn their diplomas serve do mandatory community service...why not make the welfare recipients who live off the community provide mandatory community service?
Maryland Code: General Instructional Programs COMAR 13A.03.02.06
D. Student Service. Students shall complete one of the following: ....
(1) seventy-five hours of student service that includes preparation, action, and reflection components and that, at the discretion of the local school system, may begin during the middle grades;
or
(2) a locally-designed program in student service that has been approved by the State Superintendent of Schools.
Amendment XIII
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
I do think that every teenager should be forced to work at some minimum wage service job such as convenience store clerk, waitress or cashier.
When you see how the public treats you like a vending machine with legs, you might treat people better. I try, whenever possible, to be friendly and cordial with service industry people.
My experience is that most of the people who treat these folks with such disdain have never had to walk in their shoes.
I like your idrea, and agree. Too many teens today could use a dose of reality when it comes to work and earning a living. But that’s something Parents need to impose on their kids, not something a school should impose.
That would have been my next move. Fortunately, the school board has seen the light and agreed to shelve this proposal. Now they're coming back to discuss a policy that does reward community service, but does not mandate it.
**giggles**
Please don’t get me started on this subject! Living in the Peoples Republic Of Kalifornia, This topic has caused me more than one heated conversation!
My kids are going to school(MANDATED) to learn! NOT SERVE!
Let’s get this straight.
Mandatory uncompensated work. Isn’t that what the 13th Amendment abolished.
Agreed. It's not the school's place.
The “crime” was the “poor choice” of the mother of the child. A “birth certificate” served as the “conviction” for this “crime” and named the “criminal” as the infant and two “victims” of this “poor choice” “crime.” The sentence requires diurnal punitive institutionalization of the criminal on half of all days for twelve years and other provisions that the institution may impose. Got it?
Why not require welfare recipients to work for the benefits provided by the taxpayers? Convert the "entitlement" into a fair exchange of labor for goods and services. The "workfare" concept is perfectly reasonable. The concept that anyone is "entitled" to the productive efforts of another person is just plain immoral. I'm specifically excluding the voluntary act of becoming a parent and taking on the responsibility to raise the offspring created. That's not an entitlement. It is a volitional act of responsiblity.
Exactly. My two teens work, play sports, excel in school (honors classes), participate in a church program for teens that includes community service, are required to do certain chores around the house, and have social lives. The only things we require them to do is do their best in school, work at their jobs, do chores around the house. Community service or volunteerism should stay a personal choice.
When I was in high school, the only requirement for acceptance in the National Honor Society was one’s grades. In my childrens’ high school, the NHS requirement includes a mininum of community service hours in specific “approved” community service areas and participation for 2 consecutive years in at least 3 school clubs. So my straight A kids who play a high school fall sport, work at a real job, have responsibilities at home, belong to a couple after school clubs, still need community service hours (where I have to drive them to) in order to be considered for NHS. And, the many community service hours they logged for our parish/church may not be accepted as community service hours. They may also be one school club short of the requirement because they have paying jobs and can’t schedule their work time around school clubs. I’m not saying it’s wrong, just that it’s a little screwed up.
I guess when it comes to a free public education, we get what we pay for.
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