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Thursday, June 29, 2006

Community service: another homework assignment?

Every once in a while I have a conversation with my kids that truly worries me. The last one was about community service. It seems one of my sons -- along with all of his friends and probably most other high schoolers -- look at community service as one of those things they have to complete to graduate from high school. Another homework assignment, in other words.
That's not what this is about, I tell him. Community service is about finding something you feel passionate about, and helping to discover a solution. It's not about earning hours or marking time so it "looks good" on some college resume.
Am I being naive about this school requirement?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ideally, your son and all his friends would have begun to do some kind of community service at an earlier age.Younger kids can start to perform service to the community and not have to wait until High School, when it then becomes a homework assignments.

If you wait until High School to begin your public service, then it's probably only because of the graduation requirement.

Many years ago, when I was in parochial school, we would go to the migrant camps to help the children with reading and math.
In High School, I was a member of a service club (not a requirement to graduate back then) and participated in many service activities. Since then, I have been involved in various causes throughout the years.

My kids are following in my footsteps. They began early - to help me with projects, and now, as adults, they each have their own.

It is a wonderful way to give back to the community and become involved. You meet all kinds of really neat people and (even though you have to work pretty hard) it is a great deal of fun.

I recommend it highly.

6:21 AM  

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