Community Service as a Requirement

            The subjective importance of tasks and the necessity to make them more widespread often hides the fact that such acts significantly reduce meaning and motivation through the restriction of freedom and absence of individual choice and desire. This concept applies fittingly to the forced nature of community service in schools making it a mandatory graduation requirement. By doing this, the supposed “generous” act becomes forced and independent of individual choice or desire. Therefore, there is a large possibility that the student no longer does the task out of the goodness of their hearts and individual will, but rather mindlessly as a way of completing it as soon as possible, so as to move on. One may argue that often in life, people must do tasks which they view undesirable at first, but manage to learn something out of or enjoy in the long run. However, mandated community service, as stated in Source 5, “can have negative effects on the students’ intentions to volunteer freely in the future”, often due to the reason of the requirement being “too controlling”. This clarifies that the restriction felt from the forced nature of doing community service largely outweighs possible benefits that may arise as a result of it. 

            What is the purpose of community service? The purpose, although subject to personal opinion, is to help others through voluntary acts of kindness, with the only gain being the way one feels when completing such tasks which they themselves have chosen to do and feel a rather personal connection to, and not the collection of money or future opportunity/success. This, however, is rarely seen anymore. In modern times, as a result of school requirements, many may actually define its purpose being to graduate high school or be accepted into a good university, also stating that their motivations for doing such tasks are “to make a stronger case to please college admissions officers” (Source 4). Such motives, though seemingly commendable on an academic level, are fake and shallow in regards to community service. They have allowed the concept of community service to become rather degraded over the years, losing both meaning and purpose, and becoming subject to a lack of care and personal connection.