Service Hours

A huge problem that is being debated right now in our country is the topic of should students be required to complete service hours to graduate from high school. Everyone knows that being able to help out your community can be an amazing thing. The whole base of the debate is should be helping your community be part of your graduation requirements. According to an article recently published by EdLabs that "it helps build leadership skills in students and better prepares them for future jobs in which leadership is valued. It also serves as a symbiotic relationship between the volunteer and the recipient"(Asiedu, edlab.tc.columbia.edu, 2011). Students being able to go out and help their world can have huge benefits personally and throughout the community. Most students do not engage in volunteering activities and this would help boost student participation in these affairs. 

Though community service can be very beneficial some studies also show it can hurt someone. Many students who are forced to complete service hours don't truly value what they are doing. This deprives the volunteering of its true passion which is to bring people together. "The merit of volunteer work stems from the fact that it is voluntary - if schools mandate that students perform community service, then projects lose value to the student participants. Many students don't feel inspired by their time serving the community"(Koenig, sliverchips.mbhs.edu, 2011). The whole point of service is to be a good person and volunteer making students volunteer ruins the whole experience of the event and it doesn't bring others close to one another. 

Service hours can be great but the way schools use them can ruin students lives. The SSL requirement can cause a student to be held back a grade or even not graduate this can cause an extra amount of stress on to the piles that schoolwork already provides. Volunteering is an amazing experience it has the potential to change people's lives forever. Being able to help those who are in need can change a person's life but not if they are forced to do it and hate it. The SSL requirement overall is just causing extra stress, making people hate helping others and is causing student's lives to be held back. In conclusion, school's should not require students to require a number of service hours to graduate although there should be a program to rewards students who do.