government mandated slavery

[epchick]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

If all the high school kids need is to turn in a log sheet, I don't think you will see any appreciable benefit to the community. The kids will track more hours, but I don't hold out much hope that they will actually do more hours.

How do you figure that? When I was in high school, the only groups that did community service were the National Honor Societies (NHS, Spanish NHS, French NHS, etc). In all those groups we had log sheets, where you wrote down what you did, the hours you were there, and then you got the person in charge of the community service to sign off (plus their telephone number to be reached at).

I remember thinking that 50-100 hours of community service was a lot for a whole year until I realized what was considered "community service." I was in a dance group at the time (ballet folklorico) and any performance we had counted as community service. We used to have at least 3-5 performances a month. So in the 9 month span, I racked up anywhere between 20 to 50 hours just in dancing. Not to mention we got hours for making holiday/birthday baskets for custodians, or volunteering as candy strippers.

I remember I always had fun volunteering at an elementary school's Halloween carnival. Shoot playing games w/ kids, eating candy, dressing up, scaring kids, etc was the best way to spend 5 hours.

I do think that it will be hard to get people to do the community service, especially in areas (like mine) where none are required. But to say that it's "forced labor" or whatever is a little far fetched.

ETA: i think that there are many good things in mandating community service, but at the same time I think people will lose the "thrill" of voluntarily volunteering. People will see community service as just something they HAVE to do instead of something they WANT to do. I've always found it impressive when someone in MS/HS says they volunteer at so-and-so, I wouldn't feel the same way if it was mandated.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by epchick

How do you figure that? When I was in high school, the only groups that did community service were the National Honor Societies (NHS, Spanish NHS, French NHS, etc). In all those groups we had log sheets, where you wrote down what you did, the hours you were there, and then you got the person in charge of the community service to sign off (plus their telephone number to be reached at).

I remember thinking that 50-100 hours of community service was a lot for a whole year until I realized what was considered "community service." I was in a dance group at the time (ballet folklorico) and any performance we had counted as community service. We used to have at least 3-5 performances a month. So in the 9 month span, I racked up anywhere between 20 to 50 hours just in dancing. Not to mention we got hours for making holiday/birthday baskets for custodians, or volunteering as candy strippers.

I remember I always had fun volunteering at an elementary school's Halloween carnival. Shoot playing games w/ kids, eating candy, dressing up, scaring kids, etc was the best way to spend 5 hours.

I do think that it will be hard to get people to do the community service, especially in areas (like mine) where none are required. But to say that it's "forced labor" or whatever is a little far fetched.

ETA: i think that there are many good things in mandating community service, but at the same time I think people will lose the "thrill" of voluntarily volunteering. People will see community service as just something they HAVE to do instead of something they WANT to do. I've always found it impressive when someone in MS/HS says they volunteer at so-and-so, I wouldn't feel the same way if it was mandated.

I'm not worried about the forced labor aspect particularly. I think it would nearly impossible to go that route. But as long as we were sure there was a compelling reason for the federal government to do it and could figure out a way to accomplish it, I don't know that it would be terrible. I've got little problem with the idea of a wartime draft. If there were a comparable need domestically, I guess compelling service is as valid. But I don't think there current is a comparable domestic need and I don't see a compelling reason to try to implement a big federal community service program. And fortunately, it doesn't look like Obama does either.

My thinking about the log sheets is tied into what you said about how much stuff counted. Too many things that kids already do, IMO, which may or may not really serve anyone but their immediate circle, "count" even though the benefit to the community is relatively slight.

And this may also shock those among us who are trusting, but some kids make stuff up. If all you have to do is turn in the log, I think some kids are going to embellish or exaggerate what they've really done. You were required to turn in phone numbers, but unless someone actually take the time to verify, what does it really matter?

I know kids in my community who count a one day service project as their church confirmation project, their Beta Club hours, and document it apply to NHS, so I'm a little unimpressed with logging hours for Obama too.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

And this may also shock those among us who are trusting, but some kids make stuff up. If all you have to do is turn in the log, I think some kids are going to embellish or exaggerate what they've really done. You were required to turn in phone numbers, but unless someone actually take the time to verify, what does it really matter?

I know kids in my community who count a one day service project as their church confirmation project, their Beta Club hours, and document it apply to NHS, so I'm a little unimpressed with logging hours for Obama too.

Ahaha soo true! some of my friends would do that. They'd go do community service for an hour or two, have the person sign the log sheet, and then later go back and change the hours from "one" to "seven" or something like that.