Service hours for high school students is an important step to help guide a person to where they want to go in life after schooling.   That may seem like a long shot, but if you are involved in your community you will also know what it needs and what is wrong.  You may find yourself helping out the animal shelter and realize you love animals and want to become a vet.  Poor Father Joe's church got destroyed by a tree and needs help from the community to help fix the damage, now you want to help build or fix houses.  Community service also allows yourself to feel good about your self because you are doing something to help another.  The Chicago Tribune says " Service learning improves students' awareness of their community -- and even their futures. Through service learning, a teen might realize that the type of work they're doing is something they want to pursue as a career. Volunteering gives students a chance to give back." Even when it may not help to better yourself, you are helping others and it gives you something to feel good about.

The biggest downside side is that high schoolers are busy with literally everything, school, college stuff, jobs, school work, sports, clubs, and chores.  Requiring community service hours is just one more thing high schoolers will not have time to do says Risingstarmagazine.  The average student wakes up and finishes homework and then drives to school.  At school, they have classes, sports, clubs, until about 5 to 6.  Then they either go straight to work and work till about 8 or 10.  Once home they finish some homework, maybe get something to eat or go straight to bed.  This is rinsed and repeated 5 days a week.  The only break is the weekends when they still work to 12-10 most weekdays.  Then they expect kids to do community service on the time they do not have.

I believe that community service should not be required as people have busy schedules and these schools want kids to do free labor when they should be working to save up for college as those prices rise so high every year. I would rather work for money than doing community service because every time I have done community service the time I was set for was ignored so instead of the 4-6 or 10-2.  I have been stuck for way longer and at that point, I just leave. I was told to quit my job to get more hours, the school should not be able to control what I want to do on my only free time.