Any type of extra, unpaid “unnecessary” work is considered too much work by high school students. Although we spend most of our time either socializing or pretending to do our homework, we still find time to do absolutely nothing. We complain about any extra work because, well, it isn’t our job. In eighth grade, Grady counselors visited Inman in order to explain the requirements to graduate at Grady. At the very end, community service was mentioned. We had to each get 75 hours of community service before the end of our high school careers. I first heard this and remember thinking that that it would be close to impossible to achieve.
I was completely wrong. Obtaining the requirement could be done in less than a year. Out of the 1,277 days in three and a half years, most students can find the time to complete the 75 hours. Most students, however, don’t have to actually complete the full 75 hours. Although documentation details community service performed, often the numbers of hours the time span that they work could be highly exaggerated.
Allowing students to cheat their way through the requirement undermines the point of community service. However dreadful unpaid work may seem, community service should be greatly appreciated and a highlighted part of a student’s career. If the hours are too easy to come by, then the value of the work is ignored.
An extra hour or two, or maybe even three, may not seem like a lot, but eventually it could noticeably lower the hours actually performed. Both the teachers and the students have found a way to cheat the requirement at Grady.
Community service is exactly how it sounds: working to bring a service to your respective community. There is often no motivation, however, to join or attend a large-scale community service event, especially, if there is no money in it. The requirement of 75 hours should motivate the students to actually engage in these activities and experience the importance of these events but since the hours are so easy to come by, students throughout Grady can graduate without having to attend a large-scale community service project.
Students, including myself, need to realize the importance of community service. It teaches more than just a mathematical formula, history or literary language that a specific author uses. This service provides a sense of community and develops a precedent for future involvement with the area in which we live. Helping the environment around you is just as important as helping yourself.
The requirement may seem like an excessive amount of work to a graduating eighth grader and a joke to a second semester junior but it could have an extreme impact on your high school career. Community service forces me to step out of the classes in my school to help the community where I live. School shouldn’t just be about learning the facts but becoming a well-rounded person before being shipped off to college. Teachers and students should make sure that participation is above 100 percent when working on a community service project because if that is not the case then the community service does not have the same impact.
Although I meet the qualifications for a lazy high-schooler, I understand that hard work will pay off and the only way I will work hard, however, is if I have the proper motivation. The hours required need to be earned and after two and half years of high school I realized that they are too easy to get. Once the requirement ceases to be manipulated, students will better understand the importance of these service projects, instead of being trapped as a lazy high-schooler for the rest of their lives.
