Vallejo­Armendarez 3

Anthony Vallejo­Armendarez
Professor Stern
English 50
29 September 2014
Should Young People be required to perform public service
When it comes to the topic of Public Service, many people will agree that public service is needed. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question should young people be required to perform public service? Where as some people will agree that young people should be required to perform public service, others maintain that young people should not be required. In my view I would have to agree that young people should perform public service because performing service can be beneficial to the individual in the long run. But I also would have to dissagree with being required to do so.
Service learning was introduced into schools on the premise that student ’ s academics would Improve from they're volunteering efforts. Indeed, current research indicates that much can be derived from using volunteer work for educational purposes. In an article called
To serve or to not serve, by the articles describes how the Chicago school system use public service and gives statistics to show how well an individual did if he or she performed public service. A school in Chicago expects students to participate in public service by requiring their high school students to perform 40 hours of volunteer work in order to graduate. The article stated that school officials hope that the work these kids do will teach kids the value of volunteering and provide them with skills that these kids will value. In the article
To serve or to not serve conducted a 1995­1996 survey of Florida kids who participated in community service found that
3

Vallejo­Armendarez 3

74 percent of those students improved their grades, 62 percent had better attendance, and 69 percent had fewer disciplinary problems. These numbers are what supporters say, the reasons to why it was enough for Chicago to have a service policy. Also the community did agree with the statistic outcome but there were also a few who did not agree. It's good to know that there are people out there who wants what is best for young people. By performing public service, there are numerous things and individual can take from serving the public. Individuals who engaged in high quality service­learning programs developed positive work orientation attitudes and skills (Weiler, LaGoy, Crane and Rovner, 1). It was also found that this can show that performing these types of services can help an individual gain new skills. Not only does the Individual learn new skills and learn quality service but they will learn that they can actually make a difference with what they do. This helps young people better understand their own competence, leading to more self­confidence and a can­do attitude that can spread to their work and academic pursuits.
Many people believe that performing a type of public service is a bad idea. Forced
Community Service can be seen as More of a Detriment Than a Helping hand.The article also

argues that
Some students have to work after school and weekends to help support their family or to buy the clothes and supplies they need for school. Many high school students have very busy school, work, and sport schedules that barely leave time for sleep. Adding community service requirements would severely stress some high school students who work long hours simply to keep their family financially afloat. In an article called
Should students be required to do community service to graduate by Nadia Amirah Khan claims that
“
As attractive as it may

3

Vallejo­Armendarez 3

seem, service learning isn't the most effective way of prompting students to become civic minded. ”
“
When volunteering becomes mandatory,