Should Schools Offer Community Service A Graduation Requirement?

Many high schools around the country have made community service hours mandatory in order for the seniors to graduate. Not everyone agrees that this should be a requirement because seniors already have enough on their plate. When seniors are about to graduate, it does not matter how many tasks they have to complete as a requirement if they do not feel like doing it and they have no motivation they will not complete

During my first two years’ community service was a part of our curriculum, in our Personal Development Portfolio. This portfolio consisted of two classes, one freshman year and the other senior year which includes an internship or practicum. We also must complete a portfolio paper of our work at Bridgewater over the past four years, showing our development as students and professionals. The community service aspect of our curriculum was supplied by the requirement of students to complete at least ten hours of community service each semester. Along with this, the school required sports teams to do an additional two hours of community service together to build relationships between the team and community. During the years that I was competing on the swim team we would go to the nursing home and help serve brunch for the residence. This was such a positive experience because the retirement community is about as old as our college so the residences are always very interested in the events of our school. Many of the residence either went to Bridgewater themselves or had children or grandchildren who attended the

A continuous debate that is currently receiving much attention is whether community service should be a mandatory graduation requirement. Preparing students to effectively function in the real world is an important aspect of our education system. Today more than ever, there is an emphasis on having experience before beginning work. Most jobs are now focused on looking past your resume to see what you have given back to the community. Nevertheless, it is important that schools focus on preparing college students for the work force by mandating that they receive all of the necessary exposure and experience. Numerous schools across the country have mandated that in order for their students to graduate, they must complete a predetermined amount of community service. In Maryland, high school students are required to complete a minimum of 75 hours of service in order to graduate. However, this decision has resulted in a lot of mixed responses. Advocates of this decision stress that mandatory community service opens doors for students, while the opponents feel that it takes away valuable time from students who need to focus on their education. I believe that gaining experience outside of school is critical for future success in life. To ensure that students are prepared to transition smoothly from school to work, they need to be involved with the community while in school in order to build the leadership skills that are necessary to succeed.

“Community Service is important for many reasons. Taking part and volunteering teaches compassion and understanding. You can volunteer for something you really believe and have an interest in, and can volunteer as much or as little as you'd like or have time for.” Community service is really easy to get into. I mean, it is not like you have to put out an application and have an interview in order to do it. It is really easy to get into, and is really fun. It is things you wouldn’t even think are considered, like:

According to Source D, “Support for requiring community service is weakest among those currently in school.” Form what the chart showed the idea for requiring community service to graduate isn’t very appealing. Source D states that the youth between ages 15-20 think of the idea as unfavorable. The required service they might have forced to be apart themselves may have caused a negative outlook on them which made them not have positive views on community service. Although, there are not all downsides to required community service there are some benefits that it

Community service builds character and establishes selflessness and diligence and gives students the building blocks for a better future. It helps students become more prepared and helps them down the road for what life has in store.

Community service does not require you to cure cancer, or creating a huge organization that funds diabetes research, but can instead be little things. While I know in the great aspect of the world and life I did not to a humongous deed of goodwill, but it made me feel completed and good about myself helping out the little girls and making a bowl, which I why more people should help out around the community. Who knows where we could get if everyone picked up teach once a week, or made a $10 donation to a

I think that community service shouldn't be required to graduate high school. I feel like if there was a community service requirement, most students would resent the assignment and therefore not benefit from having done the service. The school should give opportunities to do community service, but it shouldn't be required. There is definitely benefit to having done some community service, but the benefit of the student gets nullified if the student isn't into it.

Ghandi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,” (BrainyQuote). Applying mandatory community service in high school would teach students to be conscious of the world and people around them, which would invoke the students to build a passion for helping. If a change was made towards this advancement, the world would be rid of hate and destruction, and instead replaced with teamwork and development. Therefore, South Western High School should implement mandatory community service for graduation because it promotes personal growth, strengthens student futures, and increases cognitive skills among learners.

For some students, service is seen as nothing more than a grade, as something that has no purpose beyond college applications. The lack of visible results may sometimes give the impression that no changes are being made, but community service is one of the most important building blocks of our country. We have to look at each other when nobody else will lend a

Community service is a term that will bring a different image to mind for every person who hears it spoken. It can make someone think of volunteering weekends at soup kitchens, court-ordered highway clean-up, or even random acts of kindness within a community. Whatever a person’s idea of community service is, the benefits are undeniable. These benefits are now being recognized by many colleges and universities who made the decision to make community service a requirement for graduation. This decision has many critics who believe community service hours take away from study hours. However, if the true definition of

Each place I did community service gave me a new life experience I will always remember. My first experience with community service was one of my most memorable. It was at was at an elementary school’s fall festival. My job was to explain the games to the children, hand out prizes, and reset the games after each child’s turn. It sounded easy enough and exciting at first, however, after several hours of doing the same thing over and over again I was ready to leave. Instead, I kept pushing myself to finish out the rest of my community service. I did not want to let the children or the school down and I did not want to go back on a commitment I had already made. After the festival had ended, I was exhausted, and all I wanted to do was sleep. I went home and I was getting ready for bed when I realized how wonderful it felt to make those children happy. Helping with the elementary school’s festival was about so much more than just getting community service hours to stay at Middle College. The festival drained me, but it did not matter because I helped make a positive memory in a child’s

Many high schools across America have inserted community service hours as a graduation requirement. This adjustment teaches leadership, positive work ethics, and community involvement habits. It truly is a good appendage to the many requirements of graduation. This adjustment creates gateways for various categories of services towards the community. From volunteering at the humane society, picking up trash or even helping a family move to a new home. There are countless jobs that are considered community service, and deciding what to volunteer time towards would be a debate. If community service hours were a requirement to graduate at my school, I would donate my time to these three services.

First and foremost, having required community service teaches kids life skills much needed that they could find hard to get anywhere else. For example, Responsibility is a widely used skill in the world and is learned well from community service. Sirmin Gupta in Should student service learning hours (community service) be mandatory for high school graduation? had said, “students are held responsible for completing a job to the best of their ability. This sense of responsibility contributes to an overarching feeling of personal responsibility.”. Thus, showing how through community service kids are going to pick up responsibility from working, allowing them to better understand themselves and how they must take initiative in projects or life in the future. Also, kids learn group dynamics which can be applied all throughout life. The kids who partake in community service even being required will learn how to interact and better understand people. As said by Gupta, “ When performing community service, students learn to form a cooperative team in order to accomplish their goal.” The students involved in community service learn how others can help them and how to cooperate with others. Cooperation is a skill that all people need to succeed in the world so having community service being required allows the next generations of youth to gain the skills of cooperation and responsibility as well as group dynamics. Therefore, community service teaches multiple life skills that should be taken full advantage of so required community service lets more people acquire these important life skills.

During my eighth grade year at Blessed Sacrament, a local Catholic grade school, I was first introduced to the idea of community service. Then, it was presented to me as a requirement as I needed to give back to my community at least ten hours each quarter, or a total of forty hours to graduate. Both my grandparents and parents have gone out of their way to complete community service as well, and being a witness to their selflessness and learning from them the value of seeking to assist those who need it has inspired me to strive to help others as well. While community service could consist of cleaning up a park or simply giving to a charity, its true beauty lies in helping others. My introduction to community service and working to help others from such a young age has truly inspired me to maintain a lifestyle where I have the ability to help others in any way I can. My involvement in community service, dedication to my family values and desire to become a biomedical engineer while different, all are derived from my main goal in life, helping others.