Noah Abbott - Service Hours

     Requiring service hours for high school students has many positives. According to prep scholar, students who have service hour requirements have service learning, which is an approach to education that connects lessons learned in the classroom with real-life lessons learned through community service (Barge, prepscholar.com, 2018). With this connection, students will be able to use the skills they've learned and see how to use those skills in the real world. This helps students not only get ready for the real world, but it also helps them understand their strengths and weaknesses.

     Although there are many positives, there are also some negatives when it comes to high school service hours. According to Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, students that feel as if they are being controlled externally lose enthusiasm towards that project or activity (Cindi Pearce, synonym.com, 2018). Many students also have extracurricular activities, such as sports, student council, or band/orchestra. These students do not have a lot of time outside of their activities, so why add another activity that they may not want to do?

     I believe that Bettendorf should not have required service hours. In the fall I play football, in the winter I play hockey, and in the spring I do track, so I would never have a lot of time to do these required service hours. I'm not the only one who would struggle, many of my friends would not have time, as they have extracurricular activities as well. Required service hours would also add stress on students, which would put the student's mental and physical health at risk. Service hours should not be required at Bettendorf, because of the many extracurricular activities and stress.