Lots of people consider that voluntary works such as community services must be the mandatory part of the curriculum among high schools. This essay discusses why community services should not be compulsory for upper classes.
Volunteering works are great way of socializing and benefiting the community as a whole. Forcing students to do this makes no sense because volunteering jobs are not done on command. In lieu, they are done because some people feel a sense of responsibility towards society and decide to take an action. If volunteering work, in particular, is done only because someone forced participants to do it, it loses its core meaning.
Also, forcing underage students to do physical jobs, such as cleaning the street or planting the trees, against their permission is considered illegal in many countries. Child labor should not be tolerated because some people might not have been developed in terms of muscles enough to handle those physical pressures. What’s worse is the fact that it undermines human rights since mandatory community services forces adolescents to perform the physical tasks against their consent.
Last but not least, this takes students’ time which they would have spent on more important things, university applications, for example. Some might argue that voluntary jobs are appreciated in university applications and might actually help students to get into colleges. There is no doubt about that, but there are still some things to keep in mind along with that. Firstly, not all students want to pursue higher education, so it would be extra pressure for them and might be actually not worthy. Secondly, there are student out there who were able to get into universities without community services. There are more important things admissions officers consider: academic excellence, extra curricular activities, and so much more. Lastly, in order to be admissible to colleges, community service done by an applicant should be an initiative by the person on their own so that it shows how dedicated the applicant is. Meanwhile, if a student was obliged to do it, university admissions officers might not even take that into consideration.
In sum, although community services are one of the best ways to improve social cohesion for teenagers, it should not be a part of the mandatory curriculum because it might violate human rights and might exert extra stress on students.