<p>Hello again all. This is the second prompt I did from the red book, and I'd appreciate it if someone would be kind enough to score it for me!</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch in advance!</p>
<p>Q: In some high schools, students are required to complete a certain number of community service hours prior to graduation. Some people think community service is a good requirement because they think students will benefit from this experience. Other people think schools should not require community service because students will resent the requirement and, as a result, will not benefit from the experience. in your opinion, should high schools require students to complete a certain number of hours of community service?</p>
<p>In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either of the two points of view given, or yoou may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.</p>
<p>A: My Essay:</p>
<p>Service to the community is service to the student. Yet despite this adage, some oppose requiring high school students to perform community service prior to graduation. The argument comes down to an interpretation of student reaction: Will the students embrace and learn from community service, or will they reject it? There exists no one-sided answer to this question. Rather, we must assess the students as individuals with different interests, and thus anticipate that some students are bound to fall into positive, negative, or indifferent categories. Still, this does not mean schools shouldn’t require community service. If anything, it strengthens the notion that community service will do nothing but benefit students in most cases.</p>
<p>The idea of mandated community service hours does not differ even from mandating that students take typical courses like English, science, mathematics, etc. Does every student benefit from this mandate? Perhaps they don’t. Do some students resent this mandate? Some certainly do. Still, it doesn’t follow that all students resent the mandate. In fact, I know many students who actively participate, and even enjoy courses they have no choice in taking. Others who didn’t enjoy the subject at first even developed a keen interest.</p>
<p>It is up to schools to foster, or at the very least augment, interest within their students. Community service in itself adds a “real-life” paradigm to the educational process. No longer are students isolated with ideas in a classroom, but now they are in real circumstances applying those ideas. Whether applying trigonometry to engineer a community swimming pool, or applying sociological techniques to poverty-stricken community members in need, students can translate their skills from the classroom to real life. Schools must encourage, and yes, even require, this of their students.</p>
<p>Some will, of course, argue that not all students have the time to contribute to community service hours, but this is easily manageable. Just as schools work with disabled students to fit education to their disability, the schools can work with time-deprived students to fit community service hours to their schedule. Nevertheless, there is always an exception to every rule; I don’t argue this. Schools may pardon such extreme cases, but none would be able to say it was for lack of effort. </p>
<p>Schools must make the effort to foster change within their students. They may expect some students to resist this change, but they should recognize that in most cases this resistance comes from ill-logic. If schools allow that logic to restrict them from mandating community service hours to students, it would be a failing on their part. This, for those charged with educating students in their most formative years, would prove a tragedy.</p>