Our
view
Service
benefits students
If the Long Beach Unified School District
gets its way, students will soon have to
do more than just pass their classes and
a few tests to graduate from high school.
LBUSD is in the process of considering a
plan that would require each student to
complete at least 40 hours of community
service work in order to earn a diploma.
If the school board passes the proposal
in January, the plan is expected to take
effect at the beginning of the next school
year with students graduating in 2007 being
the first class affected by the new requirements.
Requiring students to complete a certain
amount of what the district is calling “service-learning”
is a wonderful way to encourage students
to take an active role in their community
and become a productive member of society.
If students are encouraged at a young age
to involve themselves with their community
then it is more likely that they will realize
the benefits of doing so and continue to
serve the community after they graduate,
not because they have to, but because they
want to.
It seems that within the last several years,
with the economy down, and after the perceived
rash of child abductions and murders that
occurred last summer, the act of community
service has not exactly been encouraged,
especially among children. Instead, parents
instruct their children to never talk to
strangers and people pretty much keep to
themselves and mind their own business so
as not to attract any potentially harmful
attention.
Requiring students to perform some type
of community service is an excellent way
to increase involvement in the community
while reducing and curbing the fear of interaction
that is developing among Americans.
Also, with the vast amounts of communication
technology available to people nowadays,
students do not even have to learn to interact
with people outside their immediate circle
of friends and family. Community service
gives students the opportunity to get to
know people, face to face, and use their
strengths and skills to help and benefit
others.
The knowledge of interaction is an invaluable
skill that can only be learned from practice
and the requirement of community service
before graduation is a necessary, good way
to teach this skill as well as the importance
of community involvement. More school districts
should follow in LBUSD’s footsteps and require
the same from their students.
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