Synthesis Essay (Draft 1.3)

Synthesis Essay

Draft 1

On January 31, 1865 the 13^th Amendment was passed; this abolished slavery for good. Now schools have to make a choice about a new kind of slavery: community service requirements. Currently education systems are torn as to whether or not a certain number of 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 community service should be emphasized through in class learning, and the tools to complete community service should be readily available to students who wish to participate. We will examine how the coerceing (not a word) of community service detracts from the experience that you receive and what should be offered to students.

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 would 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 requirements detract from the students willingness to volunteer in his or her future. A club titled the “Willie Grothman Club” was recently founded in Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. (source 4) 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. (source 4) Schools are using the excuse that community service looks good on college applications as an justification to have mandatory volunteerism. Should you let 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”. 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 achieve their diploma. As a high school Junior, I can assure you that I do not have any extra time in my schedule to squeeze in anything extra; my educational school day goes from 8:15 Am to 3:15 Pm; then I have a forty-five minute break, in which I try to cram in all of the homework that I possibly can; after that, two and a half hours of athletic practice take place. By the time I get home it is 6:45. I proceed to eat dinner, take a shower, and then crack down on 2 to 3 hours of homework. I finish everything by 9:30 – 10:00 and am ready for bed. At what time am I supposed to fit in an hour of community service? Or am I supposed to work it out during the weekend, the only time in which I am able to enjoy time with my friends, family and complete weekend homework? 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 practice, of marching band, 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 takes up too much of students’ lives today, you do not need to add more pressure and hours to our jam packed schedule.

            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 my room for some reason. 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 our age does not want required community service.  Millennials Rising, by Neil Howe and William Straus, states that “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 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.” (source one) 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.