Forced Volenteering!

paul_valaru

100% Pure Canadian Beef
no, not the draft.
Every student in America would be required to perform 100 hours of community-based service prior to high school graduation.

linky

They actually have that here in Ontario, 40 hours of community service, or volunteer work before you get your diploma, I don`t see the problem with it.
 

SouthernN'Proud

Southern Discomfort
It'd be the last 100 hours of work some of 'em would ever do...

I got no problem with it. I had to do a bunch of "compulsory volunteer work" in college to get my special education minor. Didn't hurt me none. Some was in special ed classrooms, some in residential settings, some at a vocational workshop type place.

My current job title is Community Service Coordinator. I assign and monitor the court ordered community service hours for two counties. I hear a lot of fascinating stories...
 

greenfreak

New Member
That's how my first serious HS boyfriend got into his career. He volunteered at the local ambulance corps. And I joined because of him. And my friend Kim joined because of me. And so on.

I think it's a great idea.
 

PT

Off 'Motherfuckin' Topic Elite
Missouri has a program called the A+ program for high schools now. They have to get at least a 2.5 gpa, can not miss more than 5 days of school per year, no arrests, and perform 50 hours of tutoring before they graduate. In return, they get two years tuition free at any community college in the state. So far all but on of my kids is taking advantage of this.
 

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
no, not the draft.


linky

They actually have that here in Ontario, 40 hours of community service, or volunteer work before you get your diploma, I don`t see the problem with it.

We, here in the United states, have this little thing called the Constitution and one iof the amendments thereto is the Thirteenth Amendment which reads:

AMENDMENT XIII
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.

Note: A portion of Article IV, section 2, of the Constitution was superseded by the 13th amendment.

Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

So I do see a problem with it. Tghis is merely a precursor to forcing people to work for free and their buying into it -- "volunteerism" as it were.
 

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
Missouri has a program called the A+ program for high schools now. They have to get at least a 2.5 gpa, can not miss more than 5 days of school per year, no arrests, and perform 50 hours of tutoring before they graduate. In return, they get two years tuition free at any community college in the state. So far all but on of my kids is taking advantage of this.

They are buying something with their effort. There is nothing wrong with that. To have true appreciation for things one must have a bit of themselves invested.

However, forcing kids to perform labor for what they would get normally without that labor is wrong. A high school diploma should not have to be bought. The effort, dedication, and willingness to learn is payment enough.
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
I agree with Jim.

Either it's volunteer or it ain't.

Having it as a prerequisite of some program (Honor Society, etc) is different. You have a choice. 50 hours of volunteet work or no diploma is involuntary servitude.
 

Altron

Well-Known Member
At my middle school, I was required to do 25 hours of it every year. I didn't really have to go much out of my way to do it, since I was in the Scouts and we did far more than 25 hours a year of service projects, so I didn't mind.

But I was doing it anyway, so that's a lot different than if I wasn't doing it and they made me.

It's not volunteering if you're forced to do it.

I feel that it would be acceptable to offer students the opportunity to do community service during regular high school hours, for credit. Her senior year of HS, the girlfriend went over to the middle school the last hour and a half of the regular school day to help tutor there. If students would rather do that than take a non-required elective, cool.

But I think it's unacceptable to force students to do things outside of the regular school hours. Especially in high school, and especially in states with a young minimum working age. At NJ, you can have a job at 16, and the entire second half of HS, I worked. Pretty often, in fact. usually 3 nights a week, and both saturday and sunday all afternoon. Several of my friends worked similar jobs, 25+ hours a week. That doesn't leave much time for forced community service.
 

Gato_Solo

Out-freaking-standing OTC member
Yep. Forced volunteering is not volunteering. Its conscription. That aside...I wonder how many parents think of it that way...
 

PT

Off 'Motherfuckin' Topic Elite
Every student in America would be required to perform 100 hours of community-based service prior to high school graduation.
Read it again, it's not unvoluntary servitude, and they are getting something from it. A diploma. It's a part of their education, and there is a big part of me that agrees with it, as there are lots of kids out there with no appreciation for others. Perhaps this would give them some, and make them realize that there are other people in the world, and they can make an impact in others lives with simple deeds. Surely the working teenagers would be an issue that would have to be resolved, but if the community service time could include things like tutoring at a lower grade level, or other things that could be done during school time, then that isn't really an issue.
 

Gonz

molṑn labé
Staff member
School is compulsory. So, forcing students to voluteer is not voluteering. It's forcing.

I havew no problem with the work. It's the gov't making someone do work, for free, that bothers me.
 

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
It's not compulsory all the way to graduation, though. My ex-brother-in-law dropped out on his 18th birthday just because he could. His birthday was in May and he was a month or so from graduating. So I guess it would be possible to get out of doing the service if you give up getting a diploma, which can be lived without. Life really sucks without the diploma, but that's neither here nor there.
 

SouthernN'Proud

Southern Discomfort
But I think it's unacceptable to force students to do things outside of the regular school hours. Especially in high school, and especially in states with a young minimum working age. At NJ, you can have a job at 16, and the entire second half of HS, I worked. Pretty often, in fact. usually 3 nights a week, and both saturday and sunday all afternoon. Several of my friends worked similar jobs, 25+ hours a week. That doesn't leave much time for forced community service.

Nothing personal, not singling you out or anything, but do you have any idea how pitiful that sounds? "I can't do 100 hours of volunteering over the course of nine months of school because I work 25 hours a week and go to school too." Lemme tell ya somethin kiddo...once you leave the ivory halls you'll spend a helluva lot more time than 11 hours a MONTH doing stuff above and beyond what's mandatory. And something tells me you spent more than 11 hours a MONTH goofing off. Most teenage boys will jerk off for 11 hours a MONTH. I wager most of us spend 11 hours a MONTH fuckin around this place.

All y'all who so vehemently oppose this, just man up and call it what it is. You don't WANT to do it. No shame in that. I don't either. That's why I don't do it. But save the grandiose constitutional arguments and entitlement rhetoric for another issue. Hell, Gonz wants the WPA brought back, but God FORBID he have to contribute without monetary gain HIMSELF. There's a word for that, but it escapes me right now...somethin starts with an H...it'll come to me later...

We sit back on our rounded asses and whine about how the younger generation has no work ethic...no sense of responsibility...how they might not be so quick to spray paint on park benches or vandalize libraries if they had any idea of the concept of value and ownership...then an idea comes around to teach it to 'em, and y'all start.

Hell, I don't know. When you guys decide which side of the fence you wanna shit on, get back to me, K?
 

paul_valaru

100% Pure Canadian Beef
in Ontario, it is called community service, and is a prerequisite for graduation, they do not call it volunteering, it is something you need to do to pass, like math and science.
40 hours in 3 years, not to hard to do at all.
 

Altron

Well-Known Member
My time is valuable to me, and if I'm doing something I don't want to do, I had better receive adequate compensation. Simple as that. I'm not going to spend 100 hours doing something that I don't want to for free. I'd spend 100 hours doing something that I don't want to for $935 like I did at circuit no problem.
 

PT

Off 'Motherfuckin' Topic Elite
My time is valuable to me, and if I'm doing something I don't want to do, I had better receive adequate compensation. Simple as that. I'm not going to spend 100 hours doing something that I don't want to for free. I'd spend 100 hours doing something that I don't want to for $935 like I did at circuit no problem.
You are going to be highly dissapointed with life.
 

2minkey

bootlicker
My time is valuable to me, and if I'm doing something I don't want to do, I had better receive adequate compensation. Simple as that. I'm not going to spend 100 hours doing something that I don't want to for free. I'd spend 100 hours doing something that I don't want to for $935 like I did at circuit no problem.

me me me me me me me!
 

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
(I)in Ontario, it is called community service, and is a prerequisite for graduation,(.) (T)they do not call it volunteering,(.) (I) it is something you need to do to pass, like math and science.
40 hours in 3 years, not (too)to hard to do at all.

:errrr: Based upon the above run-on sentence, do you feel that time could have been more constructively spent in the classroom? :lol2:
 

2minkey

bootlicker
now jimmy...

calm down.

not everyone is writing their term paper here. casual language is acceptable.
 
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