snowy

Agreed. I had to do community service as part of a few classes in high school, and some classes in college. One thing I've learned from doing community service is that it teaches very, very valuable lessons students do not learn in the classroom.

Where else are students going to have the opportunity to see just how individual actions affect the greater good? For instance, one of my favorite community service projects is a biannual beach cleanup. Via the beach cleanup, students learn just what impact littering has on the environment, and it makes them less likely to litter in the future. Similarly, when a student is working with people less fortunate than they are, they see what kind of choices individuals make, and how it impacted the life of that individual--whether that be drugs, alcohol, dropping out, or getting pregnant too young. When high school get the opportunity to act as mentors via community service, they gain a sense of worth from helping those younger than they are, and teaching those younger than they are. Golden opportunities for learning are handed to us via community service, and the benefit obviously goes both ways.

I was very active in my high school's Key Club organization (part of Kiwanis), and I have to say, I know very few students in high school who would turn down a free field trip, especially one to the beach, even if it is to pick up litter. We did community service all over the place, and had a lot of fun doing it. Do I think it should be required? Certainly. I think it's a lot more useful to teach a child how to help someone else than to teach them to ignore suffering. Educators have an obligation to teach students to be critical thinkers about their world and surroundings, and getting them out of the classroom and helping others helps to see problems in their world in action, and work towards solving them.

As for the argument that parents should be teaching their kids this stuff, I don't disagree, but I think you'll find that the sad truth is that most parents are too busy to teach their children about civic duty and helping others, or too lazy. Schools are not only educational institutions that teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, but they also have to teach students how to become contributing, well-socialized members of society, because if they didn't, no one else would, and then the parents would bitch about how their kids aren't being taught this stuff in school.

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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau