Should Service Hours be a Requirement?

29th March, 2023, by Cora P (G.12)

I take a look at my hours of service learning, compare it to the requirement amount for graduation and the alarm bells start going off. I find myself in a frenzy trying to complete it by doing activities that are not really service-oriented. It has long gone to the point of caring whether this really counts as service, but as long as I am able to meet the requirement I could not care. But can this type of service really be counted as service? Eventually the purpose of service will soon dissolve into a race to fulfill the required amount. 

By 1984, around 17% of schools in America assigned mandatory service hours as a graduation requirement for students. In recent years, schools have started to embrace community service, not only as a requirement for college or extracurricular, but in part as a curriculum. A mandatory service increase brings into question: is getting students to earn service hours really service if it becomes mandatory. Volunteering is volunteering because the person offers it by their own account. Once it becomes mandatory it takes the ‘volunteer’ from volunteering. Not to mention that more than 38.2% of students who participated in service work suggested that it was purely for a grade or point accreditation. 

Due to the lack of actual volunteering, most students put little effort into the work itself as long as they can earn points for it. Complaints from several service organizations had made their displeasure clear that when those students would engage in the given work: tardiness, laziness and clear disinterest in presented work would ensue. With teachers being tired of students’ antics, rules that prevent these mishaps from happening are rarely enforced. Eventually it acts as a minus for both students and actual-service needing people. 

But what student would actually do volunteering if it is not mandatory? The sad truth is that high school students will always have other priorities. This might not be related to helping others. That being said, we should not be punished for being teenagers. Our high achievement and academic excellency should not be denied the privilege to graduate just because we do not meet the service hours requirement. Instead of forcing us to volunteer by making it a requirement, schools should adjust the system to make it about duration, not completion. 

If schools desire to make volunteering mandatory then they need to give us more choices in terms of what really matters to us. Social or environmental problems that we can relate to, that will compel us to engage in volunteering without force. The length of service hours should also be changed, instead of hours making it months will make the students consistently engage in volunteering rather than the usual ‘only once’ activities. I believe it is important for students to develop consistency when doing these activities, that way even when they have fulfilled that required duration, they will continue to do it. If students manage to do these activities early into their freshman year then there will be no rush during their senior year. 

Works Cited

Ain, Stewart. “The Logic of 'Mandatory Volunteerism'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23  

Mar. 2003, https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/nyregion/the-logic-of-mandatory-volunteerism.html.

Gupta, Simrin, and Claire Koenig. “Silver Chips Online.” Silver Chips, 10 Mar. 2011, https://silverchips.mbhs.edu/content/procon-should-student-service-learning-hours-be-mandatory-for-high-school-graduation-28198/.

Karlitz, Karen. “Should Volunteering Be Mandatory?” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 31 Mar. 2001, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-31-me-45112-story.html.

Mittal, Aditya. “Does Mandatory Community Service in School Do More Harm than Good?” Youth Ki Awaaz, 27 Feb. 2021, https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2021/02/do-mandatory-community-service-programs-in-high-schools-do-more-harm-than-good/.