Compulsory Community Service Plan?

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
i'm actually unsure [url="http://hotair.com/archives/2008/11/07/obama-website-hey-lets-make-community-service-compulsory-for-students"]about this[/url].
[quote]The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, [b]by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.[/b] Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.[/quote]

do i think community service should be mandatory? no. but if tax credits towards college are offered if you do sign up (that's the thing, do you have a choice?), then is it a bad thing? but i can see where it could lead down a dangerous road (who decides which community service is appropriate; can you opt out, and if not, why not; etc).

i know that many high schools require that their students complete a certain amount of community service hours (at a place of their choice, though). the local Catholic high school does it (i think they have to do maybe 2-4 hours per semester? not sure though).

what are your thoughts?

someone at hotair said this: [quote]Allow me to explain the difference. Serving out of love for God and others is a Christian value. Serving out of compulsion due to government mandate is simply that: compulsion. There are countries in this world where paying a tithe to the church is mandated by the government (Switzerland comes to mind.) There is a clear distinction between giving (money or time) out of love for God and giving out of obligation to fulfill a government requirement.[/quote] i kinda agree.

[CatherineM]

I think that you should be able to work off student loans this way.

[rachael]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1697116' date='Nov 7 2008, 07:02 PM']I think that you should be able to work off student loans this way.[/quote]
that would be sooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome.

Edited November 7, 2008 by rachael

[homeschoolmom]

Volunteerism by definition cannot be manditory.

[Ash Wednesday]

I'm okay with state community service if it's voluntary -- something you sign up for and has an incentive -- like Catherine said, tax credit or loan forgiveness. But they need to be very careful about how they go about doing something like this.

Edited because I'm tired of ranting about Obama. Sigh.

Edited November 8, 2008 by Ash Wednesday

[cmotherofpirl]

I have always thought that every citizen should spend 2 years between high school and college serving their country in some capacity.

[homeschoolmom]

Living on what?

[Ash Wednesday]

If they do get youth involved somehow, I hope they can have the option of serving -- for example through something like 4-H or Scouts, rather than "sweep your streets for Obama!"

[Lil Red]

+J.M.J.+
it has now been changed:
[quote]"Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free."[/quote]

[littleflower+JMJ]

What i"m a afraid of is what these hours are going to entitle. Let's pray they don't involved getting "trained" to have a certain mindset from Obama's people because really I think thats where he is trying to go. Teaching the youth who are incredibly influential at those ages.

I just think the whole idea smells rotten to me. I don't trust it coming from him and would be very hesitate to have kids as young as middle school to be a part of something we have no idea who or what is behind it.

[Era Might]

One possibility is to build community service into the public school system. For example, you could have a "community service" class, where you do service projects.

I don't know about the college tax credit. Would that be payed with tax payer money?

[Saint Therese]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1697142' date='Nov 7 2008, 06:26 PM']I have always thought that every citizen should spend 2 years between high school and college serving their country in some capacity.[/quote]
Its all good until its you that "has to" volunteer.

[geetarplayer]

Would working in a pregnancy resource center count as volunteer work? Working in an abortion clinic? Yuck.

[geetarplayer]

Then again, we do need justice! I did community service in high school, and I think it could do a lot of good for our nation's youth.

[quote name='Pope Benedict XVI' date='Dec 25 2005']Love—caritas—will always prove necessary, even in the most just society. There is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love. Whoever wants to eliminate love is preparing to eliminate man as such. There will always be suffering which cries out for consolation and help. There will always be loneliness. There will always be situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of neighbour is indispensable. The State which would provide everything, absorbing everything into itself, would ultimately become a mere bureaucracy incapable of guaranteeing the very thing which the suffering person—every person—needs: namely, loving personal concern. We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a State which, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need. The Church is one of those living forces: she is alive with the love enkindled by the Spirit of Christ. This love does not simply offer people material help, but refreshment and care for their souls, something which often is even more necessary than material support. In the end, the claim that just social structures would make works of charity superfluous masks a materialist conception of man: the mistaken notion that man can live "by bread alone" (Mt 4:4; cf. Dt 8:3)—a conviction that demeans man and ultimately disregards all that is specifically human.[/quote]

Just as long as you don't think the State will try to outdo the Church. She can never be outdone in charity!

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Era Might' post='1697383' date='Nov 7 2008, 08:37 PM']One possibility is to build community service into the public school system. For example, you could have a "community service" class, where you do service projects.

I don't know about the college tax credit. Would that be payed with tax payer money?[/quote]
As a high school teacher I think more emphasis should be placed on making sure that students can read and write. Any community service -- if made a part of a school program -- should be strictly voluntary.