I'd have found a way out of it. People won't do it. They will doss / skive and do the minimum they can get away with if they even bother turning up in the first place.
Which I find quite sad, actually. It's a damning sign of our young adults today, that they have little or no desire to do something to help their community, something that will help someone other than themselves. They're happy to continue to dirty their own nest.
My town is a dump, I'll admit that. However, those who would complain the most about this sort of scheme are the ones who continue to ruin the town for everyone else.
Personal question, how would you feel about volunteering there if you were surrounded by people that hated every minute of it and were only there because it was manditory whether outright or just to graduate? I think it would ruin the true acts of volunteering for those who actually enjoy it.
when i volunteered at oxfam, people were sent there to work/volunteer by the unemployment agency because they had been unemployed for a certain amount of time and it was mandatory in order for them to receive their benefit cheques.
nearly all of those people were terrible and basically did no work anyway & it was pretty ****.
i don't think this is a good idea because of obvious reasons already stated but i definitely think that community service/volunteer work should be way more actively encouraged by schools/government/society.
I do find it kind of amusing that it's forced voluntary. I think the wording should be changed, but other than that I think it's a fantastic idea. I've done literally hundreds of hours of community service... and i never did "labour". I've run forums, skate days, bbq's, free gigs, major launches...
For those of you who haven't done community service, what exactly do you think this will be? Picking up rubbish and working with little old people? O.o Community service is a HUGE variety of things. It can be anything from (as Jo said) running a Drama group to St. Johns Ambulance Service to candystriping at a hospital! I know in Aus, there are some courses in high school that already require community service and with the International Bacalaureat you can't pass without a community service component!
I really don't see what the problem is. Though it will probably highlight to the general public how lazy and selfish young people have gotten.... not ALL young people but alot. How hard is it to do an hour of community service a week? Gosh, you could read to kids in a kindergarten class! It's not really that difficult.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Which I find quite sad, actually. It's a damning sign of our young adults today, that they have little or no desire to do something to help their community, something that will help someone other than themselves. They're happy to continue to dirty their own nest.
My town is a dump, I'll admit that. However, those who would complain the most about this sort of scheme are the ones who continue to ruin the town for everyone else.
This. It just depresses me that people complain about things, but ruin it for everybody else, so things can't happen anyway.
I like the way you both have me down as some sort of scumbag who is gonna go around and trash everywhere because I said I'd refuse to be forced into doing something.
Don't try and talk-down and belittle me, you have no idea what sort of person I am.
Me? I was involved in this, because I quoted a post I agreed with?
I have no issue against you, hell, I don't have any kind of clue what sort of person you are. But, I quoted the above post because I agreed with it, from my experience.
Huh? Say what? Why is community service something people should be "forced" into anyways. Why aren't young people trying to improve the image they have gotten? That's why the youth groups i'm on exist. To show that young people aren't all noisy, messy, obnoxious, rude... etc etc brats. Instead of complaining that someone is going to make community service mandatory and someone might have to do something that doesn't actually give them anything... shouldn't young people be going "wait a minute. We don't need it to be mandatory, we're capable of helping out in the community all by ourselves".
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you.
But there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.
I aint no abacus but you can count on me.
If it came in could people not just accept they have to do it, do it and move on?
There's pros and cons to it obviously and I'm not going to do through them because they've already been said (yes, "young people" should already be doing this. Yes, people will take the piss and not bother, etc), but could people not just try and do it and make the best out of it? Try and give back or something, even if where you live is ****, instead of saying "**** it, I won't be conscripted to do something nice for some one else besides myself". Maybe learn something, I dunno.
Though, that's probably too much like doing what "the man" tells you and such.
I'm sure what I've said has already been said, I was just too lazy to read all the posts.
When I was in public school, they required everyone to have some odd hour of volunteer work to graduate. But the catch was, they never really said anything about it, or encouraged it, until you were a few months away from graduating.
I know where I am, school is competitive. Having perfect 100% grades was just the start of it. Most kids tried to get OVER 100%, with extra credit, and Advanced Placement classes, as well as needing to get onto one or two varsity sports. Added to that, they had to do a whole bunch of mandatory "volunteering". Needless to say, all the seniors were BEYOND stressed out.
I think that schools should encourage volunteering, i.e. giving students an incentive to do volunteer work, because it can be a really great experience. But, putting more pressure on already pressured kids doesn't seem morally fair to me.
If it was part of school I would be in support of the same punishment you get when you refuse to comply with class rules. (detention, etc) I think that community service should be part of school curriculums. And I don't think they should wait until the kids are 15. When we were in grade six, part of peer support was to work with kindergarten kids. That's a type of community service. If it was outside of school (which i don't think would be able to be enforced) I think that for the kids who don't want to do it should explain why. and i'm not saying "oh i can't be bothered" I'm talking a detailed explanation of why doing community service is so terrible. And then I would ask those kids to explain to the people benefiting from the service there reasons.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Those of us who have done community service of some kind were motivated. And we really did get somethign out of it.
I didn't work with other people a lot in my volunteer work. I'm not a people person. If community service becomes part of a ciruculm in education, opportunities should be offered where the people serving aren't always working with people.
But why require it of everyone?
My husband is my best friend.
In forgiving others, we are not exonerating them. They may not deserve exoneration. Rather, in forgiving others we are giving up our anger over the fact that what happened is not what "should" have happened or that our life is not the way it "should" have been.
To those in support of manditory service: What would you propose be done to those who refuse to comply?
There is nothing these people would find interesting? From helping coach football, to helping with music, maybe even helping out a local business with some of their tasks, helping with nurseries or hairdressers? Teenagers complain that there is nothing to do in their town, well then they could help sort that! It could also be considered work experience rather than just community service which conjures up images of picking up rubbish, cleaning graffiti, etc.
I, personally, would be all for bringing the MoD on board and allowing some people to undertake basic training (not including handling guns etc) or helping out with the military in some way without the people being forced to sign up. There are hundreds of jobs they could help with. Or shadowing the police force or other emergency services.
The teenagers would have a choice of hundreds of different things they could do and they have their entire teenage years to do it. If they can't find something their interested in then I'm sure the military would help out.
ETA: Adam, I was not talking about you personally. I was talking about the people I know of from in my town.
The teenagers would have a choice of hundreds of different things they could do and they have their entire teenage years to do it.
But, there's no assurance that it would actually turn out like that.
I know at the school a went to, there were only certain things that qualified as "community service". I, for one, think that pro-bono babysitting should count as community service, but my school disagreed.
There was only a list of about 20 or so things that they agreed should count as community service, and it was mostly things like picking up trash.
I think if it was going to be brought in country wide, the oppurtinities should be wider. I don't think baby sitting is community service, unless it's like, at a community centre or something. Community service, is something that benefits the "community" babysitting benefits... maybe one or two people. Whereas coaching a team for a sport benefits that particular community that the team belongs to.
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
so its a bit like work experience? i'm in my 2nd year of college, looked for some work experience for ages. now the college have acctully decided to get us some, even though we're nearly finished. and i only get 2 days. but i guess its better than nothing and maybe it will help me get a job.
"To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to the protection by man from the cruelty of man."
