Synthesis Essay (Draft 2.2)

Synthesis Essay

Draft 2

Picking up leaves and trash off of the side of a highway for some miscreant deed is what many people stereotype community service as. Currently education systems are torn as to whether or not community service hours should be required to graduate high school. Although community service is useful not only on applications, but also in real world experience, it should not be required for graduation, instead good works should be emphasized through in class learning, and the tools to complete community service should be readily available to students who wish to participate. The coercing of service depreciates the experience that a student receives when done on ones own initiative and devalues the true meaning of community aid. Also, student's lives are too busy to participate in mandated service; if they decide that they have enough time for such activities then they shouldn't be pressured into them.

Community Service provides many benefits to high school students, but as a requirement it would detract from the student’s future roll in their community and could take away from the ideal of volunteerism. Many schools, such as The Dalton School (a small private high school), believe in the building of character through community service. However, in “Mandatory Volunteerism”, an article in Psychological Science, Mark Snyder, Arthur Stukas, and E. Gil Cary argue that community service demands take away from the students willingness to volunteer in their future. A club titled the “Willie Grothman Club” was recently founded in Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. (Bahrampour) The club’s purpose was based around community service, but it had an ulterior motive as well: give as many officer positions to as many members as possible. Why?; to make their community service look good on college applications. (Bahrampour) Should America allow students to further their future by using volunteerism as a tool rather than as a source of personal enrichment? The Breeze (source 6) presents the issue of volunteering in a simple cartoon. Volunteerism is presented as a “hip” energy drink that is “easy to use” and “convenient”.  By portraying the volunteering as an energy drink that slowly rots out the teeth of Americans The Breeze mocks the way America teaches it's youth that doing community service is "cool", just like drinking a popular energy drink, but in reality it is destroying the base of American's views of good works. This is not the way you should want the future of America to view volunteerism; the youth should view community service as a moral obligation onto themselves to help their community.

High school is a busy time for students, especially their senior year; students should not be forced to perform extra hours after school in order to earn their diploma. Last summer I signed up for the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership program. After a four day intensive seminar they left us with one challenge: to complete one hundred hours of community service within the next year. Excited and inspired I set to work to get my hours logged. My summer job conflicted with many service opportunities and once school started I had no extra time to participate in good works for the public. Whether it is jobs, homework, or athletics, most teenagers lives are flooded with activities. One 13 year old, according to source 3, was hooked on volunteering with an assisted living home, said that when he got into high school he would not let marching band practice get in the way of his visits to the home.  But I say that his visits would be getting in the way of his practice. School and jobs take up too much of students’ lives today; you do not need to add more pressure and hours to our loaded schedule.

         
           For students who do not participate in sports, don't have after school jobs, or simply think that they can take the stress load of more hours in their schedule should be given the tools to participate in community service, but not be compelled to do good works. Young people don’t want to be forced into something that they would already willingly do. For example, I, as a teenager, am much more likely to enjoy cleaning my room of  my own free will (which I actually do) than when my parents require me to clean. Source 7 is a graph that shows that out of ages 15-25 only the 23-25 year olds who were surveyed had a higher percentage in favor of community service requirements for a high school diploma. This shows that the high school teenage group does not want mandatory service.  Millennials Rising, by Neil Howe and William Straus, states “Surveys show that five of every 6 Millenials believe that their generation has the greatest duty to improve the environment… Millenials would impose extra civic duties on themselves… to achieve results.” Our age already considers it their duty to enact in good community deeds. It does not need to be forced upon ourselves, but rather we, who have time, will choose to participate in being a good citizen because it is the right thing to do. Through our own wiling actions we will achieve and enjoy our community service.

Many schools have already taken action to incorporate community service into their curriculum.  “two-thirds of all public schools at all grade levels now have students engaged in community work, often… as part of the curriculum.” (Howe, Strauss) However, it is your obligation, as a citizen of your community, to make sure that this does not destroy the youth’s view of service. School systems should form clubs and reward systems that emphasize the positive benefits of freely choosing to be a moral citizen and participate in community service.