Community Service Argument Essay

Community Service Argument Green Bay High Schools are being faced with a very controversial issue, which revolves around whether or not community service hours are needed to graduate. High schools are arguing that 24 hours of community service are needed to graduate from their facility of learning, but many frustrated students are voicing protests to this demand. This situation has caused much controversy among the school system and many arguments have risen in support and against this community service issue. Supporters of the community service project argue that if students fulfill their 24 hours of community service in high school they will develop into upstanding pillars of the community. They believe that students will become better aware of what the real world is like by doing community service and giving back to their community. Students will learn valuable life lessons by participating in community service and will feel good about themselves for helping others in need. Protestors have struck back with a very solid argument. They feel that if high school students are forced to do community service they will begin to see it as a punishment and as something that they have to do because it is required instead of something that they want to do because it is the right thing to do. Students will in the future look back at the community service projects that they were forced to do throughout high school and will continue to carry a negative outlook on community service for the entirety of their lifetime. Another idea that the protestors give about this community service issue is time constraints will make it close to impossible for high school students to fill the necessary 24 hours needed to graduate. High school students have an enormous amount of things going on in their lives. They attend school daily for 7 hours, participate in extra-curricular activities, and have part-time jobs. High school students have such a limited amount of time for themselves, as it is that by tacking on another time-consuming project like community service is ridiculous. Supporters argue back that high school students only need to fulfill 24 hours of community service throughout 4 years, that really isn’t asking a whole lot of time commitment. If students budget their time and start the community service when they are a freshman all they need to do is an hour every other week and they will still be done  with a year or so to spare. A final controversial issue that pops up is transportation. The protestors argue that freshman and sophomores in high school do not have their driver’s license, so how are they expected to get to their community service site when their parents or friends are at work or just to busy to give them a ride. Unless the school offers a means of transportation for the students there really is no solution to this problem. The supporters argue that students can find community service projects close to home or if they live in the country find another student to car pool with. Forcing students to complete 24 hours of community service in high school in order to graduate is a very controversial issue. Both sides have solid arguments about why community service should or should not be forced upon students. Community service is a wonderful thing that everyone should be required to do at some point in their life, but are high school students mature and responsible enough to take on community service projects at this stage in their life?