Should High School Students Spend Time on Community Service Essay Example

Are you on track to completing your high schools required credits in order to graduate? Many American high schools have begun to require students to complete 15 hours of community service, adding to the pre existing graduation credit requirements. The high schools participating in adding community service hours to list of requirements for graduation can help students develop responsibility, Universal skills, and discover possible career paths. 

Responsibility is a skill that one obtains over time. Community service helps strengthen that skill for students as stated in the source one “It requires them to schedule their time and learn how to juggle responsibilities”, because it forces the students participating in community service to become organized and ready which exercises and strengthens their skill of being responsible. Although some may say “The students may not be inclined to volunteer in the future” community service, still give them a feeling of accomplishment which many students need. Therefore, community service does practice the skill of being responsible.

Many concerned parents and students might typically ask, what are Universal skills and how does community service deliver students the opportunity to properly explore them? Universal skills represent skills that can be used in a massive range of situations from constructing something to obtaining a job. As stated in source two “The greatest part of SSL hours is that students learn transferable skills that can be applied to a variety of unique situations,” this implies that universal skills are learned from community service experiences. On the other hand people might argue that many students juggle jobs or after school activities as it, however many students might see the community service hours as another challenge to pursue which can also help improve their skill of responsibility and allow them to obtain certain skills that they will need at a point in their life. As a result, universal skills are really important to obtain at a young age, and why not learn it from participating in community service? 

One of the major causes of high school students not knowing what career is awaiting them after high school is the lack of time they took to explore different careers. The author includes in source 2 “Students also gain the opportunity to volunteer in fields that interest them...allowing them to experiment with possible career paths”, this concludes that community service allows students to explore possible career paths. On the other hand people might argue that voluntary work is meant to stay voluntary, however many students might need have the passion to participate in community service, but does not have the extra encouraging hand or push. 

To review, high schools adding 15 reasonable hours of community service to their graduation requirements are not necessarily a bad thing. What is your view on high schools adding this to graduation requirements?