Skip if you're tired of political things

[batskeets]

Okay, I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but seriously, read the following. (directly quoted from change.gov, emphasis mine)

"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

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, 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. 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.

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Now, I have absolutely *nothing* against public service. On the contrary, I admire those who somehow find a way to carve out the time and resources, and it's a great thing to even attempt at fighting against the inequalities that exist in our society. I often wish I could do more of that myself.

BUT, if the government plans to require community service, how exactly would any of us be choosing to serve?

Students who are already struggling to pay for college will have to give up time that could be spent on the job, and put it towards public service. High school kids from poor families will have to spend *their* spare time on public service, time that they could spend working, saving for the future. Or time that they could spend studying, so they'll have some hope at a better life and standard of living than what their parents had.

I understand what the administration hopes to do, and things like improving education and clean energy are certainly not *bad* things. But, there's no reason make public service mandatory. To bring out a spirit of public service, there needs to be a fundamental change in the mindset of the people; they must be willing to do it voluntarily. Requiring it of everyone just turns it into another burden imposed by those who have more power.

Blargh. Okay, I'll post something more fun and fluffy in a bit. ;)

Comments

[aniline.livejournal.com]

We had "mandatory volunteer work" in MD - it's even harder for people without public transportation, like 13 year olds in rural MD! haha. But fortunately when this happens (mandatory community service work is actually kinda common in schools) schools will set up programs that don't involve a lot of independent responsibilities and can be done within the classroom or after school a few days a week.

[bashou.livejournal.com]

"Choose" makes it all sound voluntary. Maybe the idea is to facilitate such work for those who are willing but aren't sure of how to start such stuff.

[skeets.livejournal.com]

That's the thing: the beginning quote refers to the ideal of people choosing to serve. It's just a flowery quote that essentially says, "hey, it's a good thing if you choose to serve!"

The paragraph about the actual *plan*, however, refers to requiring service. I assume we can expect them to institute public service as a requirement, which means there's no real "choice" involved.

[xplo-eristotle.livejournal.com]

Funny, when I visit the link you posted, I see this:

"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."

[skeets.livejournal.com]

WHOA. I visited the page this morning, and the section that I copy-pasted above came directly from the page.

The new option does sound a hell of a lot better than the old one.

[muerte.livejournal.com]

I was just about to say, the new version sounds much more innocuous.

[lillilah]

With the changes, this sounds awesome. Right now it is apparently hard to get into Teach for America and I know that Peace Corps service is very competitive.