Mandatory Voluntering

High school can be a very difficult time for students. There are many causes of stress with homework, sports, clubs, deciding on a career, picking a college, and many other things. Over the last few years, studies have shown that teens are actually more stressed than adults. It is unreasonable to make students do 100 hours of community service in order to graduate.

Teenagers have many different things going on in their lives already. Because of this, they are already stressed. A study conducted by the American Psychological Association has shown 30 percent of teens reported the amount of stress they were under was causing them to feel sad, or depressed. 31 percent said they were overwhelmed, because of the stress. Having 30 percent of your student body becoming depressed because of the amount of stress they are put under, probably it isn't the best idea to force them to dedicate another 100 hours to something they most likely don't even want to do.

The American Psychological Association has found that  teens rated their stress 5.8 out of 10, while adults rated their stress levels at a 5.1 out of 10. High stress levels can have negative effects  to one's health, so the idea of putting students under even more stress should not be allowed. Not all students are as stressed out as others, but this does not mean that you should give them more work, even if it betters the community.

There are some personal benefits to doing community service, such as learning to have a better work ethic, or acquiring new skills that you could use throughout your life. But these benefits can come from a job where you can actually make some money and learning life skills. Many students already have jobs after school and on the weekends. Requiring students to do community service may interfere with the students job hours. It is a better for students to learn work ethic from doing actual work, rather than just volunteer work.

Mandatory community service seems like a somewhat good idea in your mind. It teaches the students valuable work skills and helps the community in many ways. But when you look at the effects that school, and life, have on students, adding even more stress doesn’t really help them in the long run.