Essay/Term paper: Down with community service

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Critical Essays

Down With Community Service


Dear Editor,

I have recently read an article in the newspaper that concerned young people doing community service after they graduate high school. It stated that they should do two years of community service. I disagree with the article for many reasons.

Many people will agree with me about the community service matter. I recently spoke to the counselor of my school about the subject of community service. He said that most young people mainly think about going to college and getting a job after they graduate; therefore, they would not have any extra time to do community service. I also went to the police station and spoke to the police chief about it. He said that community service should be considered more as a punishment to prisoners, rather than a privilege to citizens. He said that people should not do work that they do not get paid for, unless they really wanted to. This is one of the reasons that supports my disagreement to the article.

Most young people do not have enough extra time to do community service. I have been doing a survey about the subject matter for a few days, and I have come up with some interesting results. It seems that eight out of ten students that are about to graduate high school are planning to go to college after they graduate. I also asked them about doing community service. Most of them said that they would be getting a job, and they would not have time to do community service. My survey has brought me to the conclusion that students who are thinking about going to college should not be thinking about doing two years of community service.

Community service is detrimental to college students. I was talking on the phone with my cousin, Waldo, who lives in Rhode Island. We got to talking about the community service subject. He told me that there is a law in Providence that when a person graduates from high school, he is required to do one year of community service. Waldo said that he had gone through the community service for the required year. He said that it took a huge amount of time out of his regular activities. He had the choice to either drop out of college or quit his job. He could not quit his job because he had to have money to get by on. He ended up having to drop out of college and work two jobs for the pay of one. Hearing that greatly discouraged me from doing community service.

In conclusion, I disagree with the idea that high school graduates should do two years of community service after graduating. I have other things to think about, like going to college and getting a job.