High school students have to meet many requirements for classes and devote time to extracurriculars and other various commitments. In addition, students are obligated to complete community service hours for IBMYP, honor societies, and IB Diploma CAS hours.

But, does the requirement of volunteer hours detract from the message of volunteering?

“You should want to volunteer out of the goodness of your heart, not to fulfill hours required for school,” junior Jojo Kidane said. “Otherwise it is work.”

Discontentment with the mandate stems from a belief that the main purpose of community service is to make a difference on a larger scale, rather than fulfill a school requirement.

If the service requirement is the only motivation to volunteer for the community, then the experience and the reasoning for completing service is not justified.

A lot of students are attracted to service opportunities solely because they have a requirement to meet and certain activities warrant “easy service hours,” without considering the meaningful impact on the community.

However, some students believe that this requirement motivates one to do community service and is necessary to ensure every student does service for the community.

“Without the requirement, no one will do community service,” sophomore Abbey Bossie said. “I wouldn’t do it personally if it was not required for honor societies or IBMYP.”

Though this requirement may help encourage community service to students, the hours completed because of a requirement are usually indicative of the easiness of the service.

Also, the multitude of other commitments a typical student has takes precedent to completing service.

“School is stressful as it is and often it is very hard to find time to do community service,” sophomore Melissa Hadley said.

“For students that would do community service even if it’s not required, I think they should get a reward.”

Though this is a legitimate alternative, the prospect of a reward defeats the purpose of eliminating the requirement. Then, students would pursue service hours in order to attain an award, not to gain a  new perspective.

An even better alternative would be to highly recommend students complete service and remove the actual requirement because it sends the wrong message.

Math teacher John Schlosser, who sponsors the National Honor Society, agrees.

“I think community service is something that’s an important part of being a citizen, but I don’t like the idea of mandating that for students,” Schlosser said. “I’d like to think that students want to do that on their own. South Lakes students really take pride in serving their community, and I think that’s the way it should be.”

Community service should be stressed as an important component of the IB experience. But, making it an expectation to conduct a certain amount of service hours diminishes the significance of completing the service: to fulfill a commitment to the community, not to fulfill a personal commitment.

To read the opposing view, click here.