'Service Hours' requirement for BHS graduation

Service hour requirements have many positive aspects to them. Among the aspect are two that I believe are very beneficial to high school students, "[s]ervice learning improves students' awareness of their community -- and even their futures"(Nadia Khan, Chicago Tribune, 2008). Since service hours can make students more aware of their community and how it can be improved, changes are more likely to occur, even if in the form of a petition because more people will know that it is a problem. Service hours can help students realize what they want to do after high school in some cases as well, for example, if a student is helping to build benches and likes it, they might pursue a carrier as a woodworker or a carpenter.

Service hour requirements also have some negative aspects to them. One negative aspect is how "when students or any individuals perceive that they are being controlled externally, the natural human response is to lose enthusiasm for the project and toward the behaviors that are being promoted" (Cindi Pearce, classroom synonym, 2018). Since humans generally lose the desire to do something when they are forced to do it, a better alternative for a service hour requirement could be incentivized service hours, where a student is rewarded for service hours. One example of an incentivized service hours is if a student completes however many hours, they get a service hour letter or bar like BHS has. If service hours are not required, many people who participate in service hours will participate in things that they are interested in, and not just easy things to get the hours done.

I believe that a service hour requirement should not be implemented at Bettendorf High School as a graduation requirement. I think that if this was implemented it would make some students more aware of the community, but it might also discourage people from taking advanced courses so they can do their community service so they can graduate. I also think that if service hours are required to graduate, many people will reluctantly do them, but if they are not required people who are passionate about helping still will. If service hours are incentivized, many people who are not necessarily passionate about helping the community will begin to partake in community service. Since people will lose enthusiasm if forced to do service hours, it is not a good idea to require service hours to graduate from Bettendorf High School.