Mandatory Volunteering

[qabawe]

Topic: Mandatory volunteering should not be prohibited.

 

What do u think of mandatory volunteering and its effect on students in school. Do u with or against it and why?

[husmusen]

"Mandatory volunteering"

 

That phrase should be shot and put out of it's misery.

It's like chalk on a blackboard.

 

Nothing personal.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. I suppose what's really being asked is, should compulsory community

service be applied like a military national service scheme.

 

Providing it's done sanely,(a big if), and the person is given some choice

of when and what sort of thing they do, and there is injury cover the same as if they were in paid employment, I don't find it in any way immoral.

 

It would be essentially a tax collected in labour rather than money,

at least as I see it.

 

Hmm, Tax == Mandatory voluntary contributions, that'll sell. Heh heh.

 

Cheers.

[dan19_83]

Topic: Mandatory volunteering should not be prohibited.

 

What do u think of mandatory volunteering and its effect on students in school. Do u with or against it and why?

 

That pharse cancels itself out! It's like saying: 'you have to do this, but you don't have to if you don't want to!!

 

seriously though, students probably should be made do it. it's good for the community and they probably wouldn't do it otherwise

[Aardvark]

Mandatory volunteering

 

Please show a dictionary to anyone who ever uses that phrase in your presence.

 

In particular point out what the word volunteer means.

 

Then offer them a copy of '1984' making particular reference to the concept of 'Newspeak'

 

Double Plus Bad

[BenSon]

"Mandatory volunteering "

Is that an oxymoron? or something else... i can't think of the name of

 

~Scott

[Phi for All]

Topic: Mandatory volunteering should not be prohibited.

 

What do u think of mandatory volunteering and its effect on students in school. Do u with or against it and why?

Please define your topic, since it's obvious no one has ever heard of it in quite this way before. What country uses this phrase? In the US there is compulsory community service, where people are given tasks to do that normally are fulfilled by volunteers. This is usually in lieu of minimal jail time or more often to avoid monetary fines.

[Deified]

I think he is referring to the community service graduation requirement in most US private schools. (not sure about US public schools) In answer: I have personal experience with this and I will say that as an ideal I really like it. In practice... it's not so much fun.

 

Essentially I do community service instead of homework about ten days a year. That isn't so bad at all, except when you figure that I haven't even started yet and I only have until the end of May. Obviously this is just poor planning on my part and has little to do with your question.

[Ophiolite]

I would be prepared to lift my objection to the death penalty if we can locate the individual who coined "mandatory volunteering".

[Dak]

"Mandatory volunteering "

Is that an oxymoron? or something else... i can't think of the name of

it can be called an oxymoron or a juxtapose. oxymoron is more correct.

 

i have heard this phrase used before (or at least, compulsary volentering, or non-negotiable volentering as my teacher used to sarcastically call it), in my old school. every now and then, we were informed that we had all 'volentered' to pick up the rubbish from the school playing field.

 

i dont think the phrase itself should be allowed, on moral grounds, a view almost unanimously held by the students of my school (the headmaster had the rubbish we picked up ditched on his car less often when he changed its name to 'compulsary litterpicking'. )

[Callipygous]

it is being introduced in public schools too. in order to pass my Civics class we were required to do 25 hours of community service. civics is required to graduate.

 

i am very very against this.

[Phi for All]

in order to pass my Civics class we were required to do 25 hours of community service.

Community service is, thankfully, not an oxymoron. And being asked to do something beneficial for your community is different from being required to do it. Something in the human makeup rebels against being forced into any action. We'll gladly do something if it's our own idea, but when it's compulsory we stop thinking about the benefits of what we are doing and instead focus on the injustice of it all.

 

All I can tell you is that character building exercises like this are only beneficial if you can look beyond the fact that it's mandatory. Many people would never get the satisfaction of having helped a fellow human being if they weren't forced into it by compulsory community service.

 

This is one of those instances where you hate the idea before you do it, but will look back in a few years (or less) and be glad you did.

[Callipygous]

i already do appreciate the experience of helping other people, thats not the issue. the issue is the idea that school feels the need to encroach more and more into what i do OUTSIDE of school. i personally object very strongly to homework. its not my fault if they cant teach my classmates everything they need to know in the time they're given, i got all the information from the lecture and im going to ace the test. homework is a waste of my time.

 

i dont understand at what point schools decided they had the right to dictate what people do with the rest of their time. the schools job is to teach me and then give me a letter so i can show other people i understand what they taught me. that requires nothing but a test.

[Ophiolite]

Up until now I've thought your posts (and I guess I've read at least 200 of them) were sensible, mature and interesting. This one, in my opinion, is just interesting.

[Coral Rhedd]

I oppose required community service, I oppose this bizarre "mandatory volunteering," both as a phrase and as a concept, and I oppose all military drafts. I believe these all to be a form of slavery.

 

People, who have commited no crimes, should own their own time and their own bodies.

[Callipygous]

Up until now I've thought your posts (and I guess I've read at least 200 of them) were sensible, mature and interesting. This one, in my opinion, is just interesting.

 

care to explain why? (im assuming your talking to me)

 

is it because it just sounds like a rebelious teenager, or some other reason?

[Dak]

im well with you, callapogouse, on the 'school should not encroach on your private life' stance. when i was at school, i hated the fact that they had regulations on what kind of hair cuts we could have. school uniform, fair enough, that can be taken off when you get home - but by dictating my hair cut, they were dictating how my hair should be both in and out of school, which i thought suked.

 

but homework is, unfortunately, nessesary. to effefctively teach most.

 

if your smart enough to not need to do homework, then you should be smart enough to figure how to avoid getting into trouble for not doing your homework - so even if, say, your bio homework doesnt teach you any biology, it will still teach you useful skills, ie lying, on-the-spot excuse generation, forgery, analysis and circumvention of systems all skils which i learnt in school, and have served me well.

[Callipygous]

the purpose of homework is to solidify the concepts in the students mind. they give you homework to make you go home and practice. i learn very fast in general, but i learn even better from audio, especially when its demonstrated. given that much, homework for me can be rephrased as "tedius gruntwork". i listened in class, i got the information. i understand. i dont need to go home and waste 3 hours of my day studying it.

 

i know of no better way to ruin a students enthusiasm for learning than boring them. i LOVE physics. i absolutely hated physics class because of all the stupid crap they make you do afterwards.

 

 

anyway. i disagree with any kind of mandatory community service. the idea behind community service is that you are giving your time and energy for the good feeling it gives you from helping others. if they make you its no longer charity, your being paid with a highschool diploma. it defeats the purpose of volunteer work.

[Ophiolite]

care to explain why? (im assuming your talking to me)

 

is it because it just sounds like a rebelious teenager' date=' or some other reason?[/quote']Right. I understand your reasoning for why homework is a waste of time. As stated, and within limits, I think those reasons make sense. Here, however, are some alternative ways of looking at it that might also prove useful. None of these may apply to you, but some might. I'd be interested to hear either way. These are in no particular order.

1) I teach adults in a business environment. I am repeatedly amazed (either because I am a slow learner or an eternal optimist) at how overconfident many (probably the majority) of them are about their grasp of the subject matter. Homework has the potential too replace the unjustifiable overconfidence with merited confidence. For those who approach it with an already good understanding it affords the opportunity to cement that understanding into their knowledge base.

2) Help classmates out with their homework. This provides two big benefits:

It enhances your ability to explain the concepts to them. (If you can't explain the concepts to them, then the chances are you don't understand the material as well as you thouhgt.)

If you are smart as you believe, then you are going to be spending a large amount of time in future jobs explaining things to others. This is a good chance to practice that skill.

3) This is the benefit I used most. Ask yourself what the specific homework is trying to achieve - in general terms. Then address other specific examples of those general terms. Look at side issues relating to the homework. Formulate similar questions, better questions, more probing questions, but in the same vein. Answer those questions.

 

At the end of a class, including the preparatory work, the class itself, the homework and the homework review. you should be capable of delivering that class to 80% of the standard of the teacher. If you can't, you haven't done enough work. If you can do that without the homework, then I salute you as a fortunate and exceptional individual and concede that, for you, homework is a waste of time.

[Guest Mel08]

Topic: Mandatory volunteering should not be prohibited.

 

What do u think of mandatory volunteering and its effect on students in school. Do u with or against it and why?

 

I think that it is an excellent idea to make students do this because it makes us more responsible and more mature. I voluteered 175 hours of my time last year and i am working on 300 this year. My state only requires 40 hours of it in 4 years. I think just about anyone can pull that off. You have 4 years to do it, if you wait till the last year thats tuff Sh** on you.

Mel

[Deified]

I think it's great that you chose to volunteer your time, but making people do community service does NOT make them more responsible. It just makes them resent the institution that forced them into it. Because all of my experience with volunteering has been of the required variety, I find that I dislike doing it. Some of my volunteer work has been great fun, but I'm always going to be aware that I don't have any choice about it. If you choose to do it, then you feel really good about helping people. If your forced to do it, it feels like you're being exploited.

[ecoli]

"Mandatory volunteering"

 

That phrase should be shot and put out of it's misery.

It's like chalk on a blackboard.

 

Nothing personal.

 

Cheers.

 

P.S. I suppose what's really being asked is' date=' should compulsory community

service be applied like a military national service scheme.

 

Providing it's done sanely,(a big if), and the person is given some choice

of when and what sort of thing they do, and there is injury cover the same as if they were in paid employment, I don't find it in any way immoral.

 

It would be essentially a tax collected in labour rather than money,

at least as I see it.

 

Hmm, Tax == Mandatory voluntary contributions, that'll sell. Heh heh.

 

Cheers.[/quote']

 

hmm... I think you got something there, let people write off volunteer hours on their taxes. That makes it practically compulsory.

[husmusen]

In Australia they allow donations to be written off, I don't see

how doing it yourself is really any different to paying someone

else to.

 

I originally meant that last topic in a humerous vein, but coming back to

it a few weeks later and also seeing your post, you've got me

thinking now.

 

Especially since a lot of poor people are people who are looking for work

but can't get enough(I don't know how it is in your country), they would

find it easier to find time to pay their taxes in labour, than to find scarce cash to pay the taxes.

 

Hmmmmm, (cogitations).

 

Cheers.

[Guest donabene]

Besides some of the positive reasons outlined above, what about the fact that K-12 students are being provided with a 'free and public' education?

Doesn't the taxpayer (as represented by local and state education boards) have the right to expect a demonstration of civic obligation?