government mandated slavery

[Scandia]

Not all schools require community service to graduate.

Mine encouraged it to the point that the principal thought it was more important than academics- but did not require it. It was only required to belong in NHS. Everyone knew that was the real reason why I did it.

I did not read about this till today. But I am seething. Not only I do not like being told what to do- but this would be a logistical nightmare. One of the beautiful parts of volunteer work is the CHOICE to do it. Regardless of the intent behind it- which is only up to the supreme being to judge- one needs to make the decision on your own free will. Not be imposed by the government. Forced labor is ILLEGAL.

Not to mention this would be a logistical nightmare. For the schools and for the students as well. Unless it were extremely well organized with a person in charge of this at every school, it would be very difficult to do.

Obama has not even been inaugurated- and he already did something for me to dislike him.

Don't blame me, I voted for McCain!

[KSUViolet06]

The title of this thread is quite misleading.

[DolphinChicaDDD]

Originally Posted by Scandia

Not all schools require community service to graduate.

Mine encouraged it to the point that the principal thought it was more important than academics- but did not require it. It was only required to belong in NHS. Everyone knew that was the real reason why I did it.

I did not read about this till today. But I am seething. Not only I do not like being told what to do- but this would be a logistical nightmare. One of the beautiful parts of volunteer work is the CHOICE to do it. Regardless of the intent behind it- which is only up to the supreme being to judge- one needs to make the decision on your own free will. Not be imposed by the government. Forced labor is ILLEGAL.

Not to mention this would be a logistical nightmare. For the schools and for the students as well. Unless it were extremely well organized with a person in charge of this at every school, it would be very difficult to do.

Obama has not even been inaugurated- and he already did something for me to dislike him.

Don't blame me, I voted for McCain!

Logistical nightmare? Please. The school were I previously taught had around 3,000 kids. All managed to complete their 50 hours easily and it was far from a logistical nightmare. Heres how it went: Kids get paper. Kids have paper signed by person supervising their community service hours. Kids hand in paper to homeroom teacher. Homeroom teacher enters into a spreadsheet. Community service representative for the grade level removed the kid's name from the list when service was complete. Done.

Currently, I'm teaching in a international baccalaureate school and part of the program requires kids to do 150 hours of CAS (creativity, action, service) over two years. There are only 300 kids in the program, but the same basic method as above applies. No problems.

Community service is great for kids, particuarly those who are high risk. I can't even count the number of kids who were on their way to dropping out, joining gangs, or worse who after their required "forced labor" turned their lives around and became productive students and members of society.

[preciousjeni]

Originally Posted by DolphinChicaDDD

Community service is great for kids, particuarly those who are high risk. I can't even count the number of kids who were on their way to dropping out, joining gangs, or worse who after their required "forced labor" turned their lives around and became productive students and members of society.

Which is why a lot of juvenile rehabilitation/correction programs use community service in this manner. The best way to learn responsibility is to be responsible for someone else (I may have posted this before...can't remember).