Service Learning Should NOT be Mandatory For College Students Essay

Service study is the name for forcing college students to do proffer work as part of their college careers. The hope is that this volunteer work will clear students a better understanding of civic duty, and thus, be a worthy addition to college curriculums. However, this idea relies on the faulty premise that if one is forced to volunteer that one will derive the same benefits as someone who does it out of their own desire to help. Mandatory service learning will not defend the desired effect, and should not be forced upon students.It is perhaps intuitive to think that by making students help others there will be a meshing positive there could be no downside to volunteering time and effort to help the community. However, a more detailed inspection reveals there are m either negatives, and any positive effects are just wishful thinking.To begin with, service learning wouldnt benefit the students education. Indeed, many students would be unable to volunteer in their field. This n egates any argument that service learning would help the students education. While there may be specific cases where a student with a practical study could benefit from volunteering their efforts, this would simply be a positive indirect effect. Not only that, but in many cases such students are already efficaciously volunteering their time in the form of unpaid internships. If schools wish students to volunteer in such a manner they should be working with charities to establish more unbidden internships. However, as soon as students are forced to volunteer for the sake of volunteering, it no is longer about helping the student.One has to ask why it is wholly schools that would take up this forced volunteer work? If it was really a needed benefit to s... ...he community. The only justification for having the students do the work themselves is a sense of civic duty. Unfortunately, by forcing the students to do the work, any positive sense of civic duty will be offset by negative emotions from being forced. A better way to gain the desired sense of civic duty is through additional education that addresses the problems and their causes. In the end, the idea of mandatory service learning doesnt make sense.Works CitedBringle, Robet G. and Julie A. Hatcher. Implementing Service Learning in Higher Educations (Excerpt). Journal of Higher Education 67.2 (1996) 221-223. Print.Caret, Robert L. Local Students Serve as They Learn. Examiner.com. The Examiner. 20 phratry 2007. Web. 9 Sept. 2008.Egger, John B. service Learning Reduced Learning. Examiner.com. The Examiner, 2 October 2007. Web. 9 Sept. 2008.