Op-ed: the downside of school volunteer requirements

EXTRACURRICULARS IS VOLUNTEER REQUIREMENT AN OXYMORON? OP-ED SCHOOL VOLUNTEER REQUIREMENT VOLUNTEERING by Lily Lou | on February 28, 2015 | 0 comments | in Extracurriculars | Like it

Image From Boston Parents

Is volunteering still volunteering if it is required to graduate?

Many schools have begun requiring students to graduate with a certain amount of volunteer hours, including my own. Volunteering is a great way to help out your community, but there are also many other ways to become the Mother Teresa of your community without volunteering. Having service learning requirements for students promotes a point of view that volunteering is the only way to help your community, when in reality you could help the community through many other ways, such as participating in clubs, becoming an activist, writing articles for The Prospect, performing random acts of kindness, becoming a mentor, researching, or even getting a job.

Not having volunteering requirements would not prevent anyone from volunteering, but it would encourage avid volunteers rather generating a larger number of uninspired volunteers who glance at the clock every few minutes. Forcing community service on high school students only creates more volunteers who unexcitedly volunteer to fulfill volunteer requirements. Community service is about giving back to your community, but efforts to train volunteers and work with volunteers are futile if they are not dedicated to the cause. This wastes time both for the student and the volunteer organization. Requiring high school students to volunteer does not make them better people. “Schools should use other methods to inspire community and compassion,” said Karen Zheng, a high school Junior from Northview High School. “Even though some kids might work at a homeless shelter for one hour each month, they might still pass by a homeless man on the street without doing anything.”

In fact, according to Education Week, service learning requirements, such as the one in Maryland, actually reduce the amount of long term volunteering in communities.

MARYLAND’S STATEWIDE REQUIREMENT THAT ALL STUDENTS COMPLETE 75 HOURS OF SERVICE LEARNING BY GRADUATION LED TO SIGNIFICANT BOOSTS IN 8TH GRADE VOLUNTEERING—GENERALLY IN SCHOOL-ORGANIZED ACTIVITIES—BUT IT ACTUALLY DECREASED VOLUNTEERING AMONG OLDER STUDENTS, LEADING TO A POTENTIAL LOSS IN LONG-TERM VOLUNTEERING, ACCORDING TO A STUDY PREVIEWED ONLINE BY THE ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION REVIEW IN JUNE, (2013).

– SARAH D. SPARKS IN COMMUNITY SERVICE REQUIREMENTS SEEN TO REDUCE VOLUNTEERING

Volunteering should be treated just like any other extracurricular, and students who participate in other extracurriculars such as clubs and sports will have a tougher time getting enough volunteer hours to graduate because of their other extracurricular involvements. Students already have a lot on their plate, and volunteering only adds more things to juggle. This balancing act only leads to more stress and less sleep (two-thirds of students already get less than seven hours of sleep). Volunteering is also biased against low income students who have to keep jobs to help their families earn money. Besides the time that could have been used earning money or helping out with family, transportation costs for volunteering make it harder for low income students to have a say in choosing their volunteer opportunities and are forced to choose from a limited amount of opportunites near their schools or homes.

Volunteer requirements give students an idea that the more time students put into something, the more they are helping their communities. It gives students a mindset of quality over quantity. This leads students to seek out low-effort volunteer opportunities that offer more service learning hours rather than truly making an impact in their communities. Just like there are fluff clubs, there are fluff volunteer opportunities that credit more hours than actually performed. Similarly, many schools have deadlines for hours to be submitted, but some students miss those deadlines and do not receive credit for their service.

Requirements for volunteer hours also falsely elevate school rankings. Students racking up large numbers of school service hours is advantageous to the school systems and gives schools a better public image. Though extracurriculars play a small role in influencing college rankings, some schools advertise their “commitment to service learning” through these required service hours.

Volunteering should not be a high school graduation requirement because volunteering isn’t for everyone and there are plenty of other ways for students to find their passions and gain experience. It creates a culture that supports quantity over quality, and makes an insignificant impact on the community, even reducing long term volunteering.