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volunteer at habitat for humanity, learn how to build/deconstruct a house, learn some skills
a lot of construction people work there for the discounts, rough people but they teach well, go learn some life skills while learning some practical skills.
wish it was required, all high school students should have experience working with adults that arent their parents. get a backbone and learn to respect people while standing up for yourself
high schools fail in graduating adults, they think teaching books is their one goal, but at 18, the kids are adults and should hold themselves by that standard
biggest thing to gain from volunteering is working with adults as "equals". kids spend 18 years in a parent/child, teacher/student,coach/sports player, boss/employee relationships ... when do they learn to interact as equals with people not their own age?
It's really quite simple. As a principal you look to eliminate situations that cause controversy and focus negativity on the school. It seemed far too often that there were dust-ups on the PTA over one type of community service -- religious affiliated. Far too often angry parents came in to debate religious affiliated community service. Only one time do I remember an issue over a non-religious community service, and that was when parents realized that the ------ community organization had given kids community service credit whether they showed up, or not. Other than that one time, the only community service situations that caused dissension were religious related. Why should the Jews be able to count blah blah blah. Why should the Catholic be able to count blah blah blah since it's part of their religious obligation. Why should Muslims be able to count blah blah blah. And then there were the splinter religions. If a principal lets the Catholics (and I am one, sort of) count their fund raising fair, then the principal has to let the Westboro Baptist Church count their fund raising event, too. It's too messy. There were occasional exceptions when the activity was clearly and wholly non-religious in nature; for example when a group of kids from one church (don't remember which one) collected goods that went 100% to the non-religious affiliated homeless shelter, I allowed that.
Now, perhaps, when you do something of a religious nature you want something back from it. I don't. When I give donations to religious affiliated charities, I don't claim those on my income tax because I'm doing it for God, and not for any other selfish reason.
When you're the principal, you can make a different decision.
You are welcome to have the last word.
Our common former Maryland school system did count religious volunteering. It did not, however, allow hours to be counted from Scouts or those earned as a junior firefighter at one of the volunteer departments plus a couple other organizations.
Our reality, since there was zero monitoring, was that a significant number of kids had hours certified (say from their neighbor for raking leaves or something) they didn't put in. It became a game/scam.
I had one Principal assign a kid to be my "aide" to get the hours. I asked what he was supposed to do since the aides weren't allowed to correct papers, enter grades or any of the drudge work. The Principal just shrugged and told me just to make sure the kid got his hours.
Here in the Province of Ontario, the requirement is 40 hours of approved community service per school year. It has to be on a approved list, provided by the school board. So in a 4 year HS program the requirement is 160 hours.
The choices are wide ranging, and all are open to females and males. The one area that is not allowed is any position that would displace an employed person, so no working in a retail store.
It's really quite simple. As a principal you look to eliminate situations that cause controversy and focus negativity on the school. It seemed far too often that there were dust-ups on the PTA over one type of community service -- religious affiliated. Far too often angry parents came in to debate religious affiliated community service. Only one time do I remember an issue over a non-religious community service, and that was when parents realized that the ------ community organization had given kids community service credit whether they showed up, or not. Other than that one time, the only community service situations that caused dissension were religious related. Why should the Jews be able to count blah blah blah. Why should the Catholic be able to count blah blah blah since it's part of their religious obligation. Why should Muslims be able to count blah blah blah. And then there were the splinter religions. If a principal lets the Catholics (and I am one, sort of) count their fund raising fair, then the principal has to let the Westboro Baptist Church count their fund raising event, too. It's too messy. There were occasional exceptions when the activity was clearly and wholly non-religious in nature; for example when a group of kids from one church (don't remember which one) collected goods that went 100% to the non-religious affiliated homeless shelter, I allowed that.
Now, perhaps, when you do something of a religious nature you want something back from it. I don't. When I give donations to religious affiliated charities, I don't claim those on my income tax because I'm doing it for God, and not for any other selfish reason.
When you're the principal, you can make a different decision.
You are welcome to have the last word.
Why in the blazes do parents care about what community service a child other than their own does? Why is the answer not, "Sir, we can not discuss this about another person's child anymore than we can discuss any other assignment done by a child other than your own. Did you have a question about your child's community service?" But, thank you for providing anecdotal evidence that backs up one of the reasons I stated as to why mandatory community service is not a good idea.
Frankly, if they do have it there ought to be an extremely wide latitude of what is accepted. I know around here they count any thing done for anyone that does not involve being paid. A couple of the neighbor kids shoveled snow for neighbors. I know of one kid that was allowed to count walking his neighbor's dog. Plus there are slews of kids that get their credit for "helping" around the school during the school day. Basically, if you turn in the paper with some listed times signed by someone other than you, including your own parents, it counts. It is a ridiculous check-a-box exercise that should have been left to just kids joining NHS or service clubs.
Just curious, did you fail students who didn't turn theirs in?
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volunteer at habitat for humanity, learn how to build/deconstruct a house, learn some skills
a lot of construction people work there for the discounts, rough people but they teach well, go learn some life skills while learning some practical skills.
wish it was required, all high school students should have experience working with adults that arent their parents. get a backbone and learn to respect people while standing up for yourself
high schools fail in graduating adults, they think teaching books is their one goal, but at 18, the kids are adults and should hold themselves by that standard
biggest thing to gain from volunteering is working with adults as "equals". kids spend 18 years in a parent/child, teacher/student,coach/sports player, boss/employee relationships ... when do they learn to interact as equals with people not their own age?
There's a lot to what you say.
I remember that when I was principal, a group from the PTA wanted to sponsor a collection drive for blankets and other things needed at a homeless shelter (I give them credit...at least they recognized that we had a homeless shelter right in our area). And I said, "Great. Let's work out how the drive will operate." And so did, and then it got down to delivering the stuff to the shelter. "Oh, well you'll have to do that, Mr. L----." "No, while I'll help, the parents and kids who worked on the project need to also help on the delivery." "Oh, we'd be afraid to go there, and our kids shouldn't see that kind of environment." Sigh. So much fear of people who are different.
Why in the blazes do parents care about what community service a child other than their own does? Why is the answer not, "Sir, we can not discuss this about another person's child anymore than we can discuss any other assignment done by a child other than your own. Did you have a question about your child's community service?" But, thank you for providing anecdotal evidence that backs up one of the reasons I stated as to why mandatory community service is not a good idea.
Frankly, if they do have it there ought to be an extremely wide latitude of what is accepted. I know around here they count any thing done for anyone that does not involve being paid. A couple of the neighbor kids shoveled snow for neighbors. I know of one kid that was allowed to count walking his neighbor's dog. Plus there are slews of kids that get their credit for "helping" around the school during the school day. Basically, if you turn in the paper with some listed times signed by someone other than you, including your own parents, it counts. It is a ridiculous check-a-box exercise that should have been left to just kids joining NHS or service clubs.
Just curious, did you fail students who didn't turn theirs in?
To be honest, I don't remember any of our kids not ultimately fulfilling the obligation. But, we were in an area that was rich in opportunities.
I remember that when I was principal, a group from the PTA wanted to sponsor a collection drive for blankets and other things needed at a homeless shelter (I give them credit...at least they recognized that we had a homeless shelter right in our area). And I said, "Great. Let's work out how the drive will operate." And so did, and then it got down to delivering the stuff to the shelter. "Oh, well you'll have to do that, Mr. L----." "No, while I'll help, the parents and kids who worked on the project need to also help on the delivery." "Oh, we'd be afraid to go there, and our kids shouldn't see that kind of environment." Sigh. So much fear of people who are different.
Wow, that says a lot about the parents and their fears. Our girl scouts did a lot of community service including:
Tutoring for a school that was mostly Hispanic - they loved the kids and the parents
Serving food at a church that fed the homeless and poor - they learned to appreciate all people that way
Working at a food bank to distribute food and to stock shelves - they learned to be grateful for what they had.
We had troops that came from very affluent homes who volunteered and girls who came from homes that were not so far above the families we served.
Wow, that says a lot about the parents and their fears. Our girl scouts did a lot of community service including:
Tutoring for a school that was mostly Hispanic - they loved the kids and the parents
Serving food at a church that fed the homeless and poor - they learned to appreciate all people that way
Working at a food bank to distribute food and to stock shelves - they learned to be grateful for what they had.
We had troops that came from very affluent homes who volunteered and girls who came from homes that were not so far above the families we served.
It is so good to hear that.
It brought to mind a student of ours...nice kid. One night on the local news there was a feature story about a particular soup kitchen and one of the people working there was our student...12 at the time. So the next day I had a chat with him, and it turned out that -- without fanfare or bragging about it -- he and his parents had been working at that soup kitchen half a Saturday each week for several years. Truly inspiring.
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