Forced Volunteering: Taking Away The Purpose of Volunteering

To be able to graduate, many high schools require their students to fulfill a certain amount of volunteer hours. The problem that has arisen is that many people believe making a student volunteer takes the purpose out of volunteering. There are several ways you could stand on this issue, but in my opinion it all depends on the person. Whether or not a person should be required to volunteer should depend on their extracurricular activities, grades and age.

Any high school student that has been involved in an extracurricular activity knows how difficult it can be to manage time for school work. Between practice if you are involved in a sport and meetings if you are in a club, there is little time to get homework and school projects completed. To be required to volunteer on top of that, would in my opinion be too stressful on a high school student. I myself participate in school sports and know how hard it is to get homework done. On a typical school day I get home from practice around seven. I then only have a small window of time to do homework if I want to get in bed by a decent hour. Also I have cross country meets every Saturday, leaving only Sunday for time to relax. If I had to volunteer, Sundays would be my only option. Therefore I would be completely busy all week with no down time. In the end, if a student participates in one sport or club each year, they should not be required to volunteer.

One other reason I believe a student shouldn’t have to volunteer depends on their grades. For example, a student with all A’s and B’s should be exempt from volunteering. The reason being is that they have put in time and effort in order to get those grades and therefore should be rewarded with down time. If they had to volunteer, a large chunk of the free time they earned would be taken up. On the other hand, if a student fails to make those grades they should be punished by having to put in so many volunteer hours. One benefit of this is that the student may strive to make better grades so they don’t have to volunteer. In the end grades should also be a deciding factor in whether or not a student is required to volunteer.

Last, a student’s grade level should play a role in whether or not they should be required to volunteer. The reason being is that colleges and universities look at what extracurricular activities a student participates in and volunteering is one of the activities they look for. As many people know, students do not start applying to colleges until they are at least a junior. Therefore, it is my opinion that underclassmen, or freshman and sophomores, should not be required to volunteer. If a student should be required to volunteer, it should not be until they are a junior or senior. In the end, if students were required to volunteer to impress their college of choice, it should not be until they are juniors and seniors.

Forced volunteering, in my opinion, takes the purpose out of volunteering. Whether or not a student should have to volunteer depends on three things. They are whether the student participates in extracurricular activities, their grades and their age. If a student plays sports, makes A’s or B’s on a regular basis, or is an underclassmen they should not be required to volunteer. In the end, students should always be allowed a way to be exempt from forced volunteering.