Service hours

One positive about making community service mandatory is that it builds on your personality. Community service is supposed to help teach students responsibility, communication skills, and can expose students to different career paths. And according to the original 1997 MCPS memo, all community service activities, whether it be direct or indirect, encourages career preparation and reflection(MCPS, silverchips.mbhs.edu, 1997). Not only does the student benefit from community service hours but the community that they are volunteering in benefits.

One negative about community service being mandatory is that it takes away from the whole point of volunteering. By making service hours mandatory it forces kids to volunteer because they need it to graduate, and not because they want to. And volunteering should come "from a student's passion and interest."(silverchips.mbhs.edu, 2011). Some students also don't have a lot of time outside of school to volunteer that much. This is because students are involved in after-school sports or clubs, or some have jobs.

I think students should volunteer and do community service, but I don't think it should be made mandatory or a graduation requirement. I agree with the article when it says some students don't have time to volunteer and that it should be because the student wants to and not because they need to. If you make community service requirement kids will just do the bare minimum and won't get anything out of it because they didn't want to do it in the first place.