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Old 11-07-2008, 11:41 AM
 
Location: Home, Home on the Front Range
25,826 posts, read 20,627,057 times
Reputation: 14818

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Quote:
Originally Posted by cobolt View Post
Absolutely, welfare recepients should be working for their money. You get a welfare check, you're physically able to work? Get out there and do some community service. And all those teenage kids who are so "bored" so they cause trouble...they should be out there too....painting over graffiti, planting community gardens, thugging less and getting off their dufts to improve their communities instead of waiting for a handout. This could go so many places but I have a feeling it will (the program) be mismanaged, consist of fraud, etc. ANd...not every kid wants to go to college nor do they need to, so what do we do about that? I know that when I graduated high school, I didn't know what I wanted to study so I put off college and went into the military. What do we do about those kids?
You raise some very valid points. I am all for bringing back the welfare-to-work program that was started under Pres. Clinton, and based on comments that President-elect Obama made during the campaign specific to personal responsibility, I expect that we will see something along those lines.

The tuition credit should also be applicable towards technical or vocational education (what we used to call 'trade schools') or perhaps deferred until a final decision is made.

I recall President-elect Obama saying during the debates that people who choose to serve in the military should be compensated to a greater degree than those who choose to do civil or non-military government service, I agree with that also, and I believe that the new G.I. Bill will go a long way towards recruitment and retention.

The key for me is that our young people want to serve and the more options available to them, the better for our country's future.
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Old 11-07-2008, 12:40 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,373,731 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JerZ View Post
No. But involvement can make them want to.

Weren't you ever involved in a community drive as a kid? You know, singing at the old folks' home, or volunteering to box canned foods at Christmastime or whatever? Those things make kids feel like they do have the power to change something "real". Very often, kids do badly in school because it just doesn't feel "real" to them. They can't, for example, imagine when as adults they'll ever need to do algebra. But hands-on, with-the-community stuff is a lesson that doesn't come from a book and seems to make sense to kids (and to everybody).
Of course we did. I think all people especially kids want to help everyone. Where the good feeling disappears is when it's required. Think of how many things you are required to do that you actually enjoy doing it every single time. You may be lucky enough to have a job you enjoy which would be considered required since you need to put food on the table. I guess I have just never felt the warm fuzzies over things that are required. I'll keep thinking about it though maybe I have done something that was required that enjoyed and I'm just glossing over it.
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Old 11-07-2008, 12:48 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,373,731 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JerZ View Post
Well, that's just silly. It was up to the fire department to give you little things to do. I think you have a negative view of programs like this because of your own experience...but around here, when kids volunteer to work, they work. And this is a fairly privileged area, at that.
I have volunteered 5 times in my life. 1 of which was required for 1 class I wanted to take but not required for attending. I should have clarified myself more. I did work at the FD but only about 3 of each of the 8 hour days. $106/hr under Obama's plan. How will they make sure they are getting their $40/hr worth out of volunteers? An oversight committee which will add even more money and when the volunteer scandal hits there will have to be a bi-partisan investigation...*shivers @ government programs*..... Bureaucracy at it's greatest....


This ignores the fact of paying people $40/hr also who are untrained & unschooled and turning them into temporary government employees.
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Old 11-07-2008, 12:57 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,373,731 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by findingmesomeday View Post
Two words that should NOT exist in the same sentence with regard to this topic (as well as so many others).

GOVERNMENT

MANDATED

I think there are some people being very obtuse about this. I have not seen ONE poster discredit the idea of community service and its value per se. It's the way Obama wants to go about it that has people upset.
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
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Old 11-07-2008, 01:02 PM
 
29,939 posts, read 39,373,731 times
Reputation: 4798
Get Up Lazy A** and Get Started


*snickers*

Sorry couldn't help it.
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Old 11-07-2008, 01:07 PM
 
Location: PA
49 posts, read 95,852 times
Reputation: 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by songgirl View Post
No one is talking about requiring adults to volunteer, unless you commit a crime in which case a judge often orders community service as part of a sentence. I also feel that welfare recipients, who have the ability to work, should be required to give back to their community in some way.

When someone is REQUIRED to do something...they are not VOLUNTEERING!
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Old 11-07-2008, 01:08 PM
 
Location: PA
49 posts, read 95,852 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475 View Post
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
So true, so true!
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Old 11-07-2008, 01:11 PM
 
Location: Imaginary Figment
11,449 posts, read 14,432,626 times
Reputation: 4777
Quote:
Originally Posted by KevK View Post
It should be a requirement for graduation. .
It is down here. My daughter learned first hand what service work was about and helped feeding the poor at the food bank. When it was time for her to rotate out of it, she didn't want to leave.
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Old 11-07-2008, 01:36 PM
 
Location: Brentwood, TN
8,002 posts, read 18,576,628 times
Reputation: 12357
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigJon3475 View Post
When things become required the good feeling of charity work is lost. people will willingly donate money but as soon as their taxes increase to force that money out things turn ugly.
It is required, by mom and dad right now. Kid's learn to appreciate the things they have and the great family they have when they realize how fortunate they are. Nothing wrong with showing compassion to kids.
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Old 11-07-2008, 01:38 PM
 
Location: NJ/NY
10,655 posts, read 18,622,815 times
Reputation: 2829
We already had to do this as a requirement to graduate in NY when I graduated (1996). I think it's a great thing. Should be required for graduation just as Math, English, etc. credits are.
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