The Importance Of Community Service

Education is a tool that can be used for various purposes. Such an experience ought not to be restricted to a structural, schoolroom environment. Undoubtedly, academics are an indispensable element of the evolutionary experience of gaining knowledge; however, the formation of empathy and both communication and self-reflection skills is equally essential.

High school experiences are the culmination of adolescents’ holistic educational enhancement; therefore, community service holds great significance and should be a compulsory component of students’ educational experiences. Some opponents of this view may argue that the prerequisites held by future employers do not include community service. Indeed, such individuals claim that community service further detracts from the time a student spends reviewing course material, and consequently heightening occupational prospects. This, however, is a flawed argument. In an era where professional occupations are fluid in nature (a result of both fiscal insecurity and the current mobile way of existence), the most important skills a student can have are their interpersonal and intrapersonal, or communicative and reflective, skills.

Community service enhances these qualities, providing students with appreciation for and recognition of not only others’ situations, but indeed the capacity to relate to and truly value other humans being “served”. Furthermore, students are not solely rewarded with reciprocity, as they are able to see the effects of their service and how they have affected others’ lives, but also with the opportunity to further explore their interests, which does allow them to pursue their future vocational aspirations.

(source) Although the notion that obligatory community servic...

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...f school to which they have been confined and, perhaps for the first time, discover abilities they never thought they possessed or would be rewarded for.

In fact, several students may obtain a passion directly for community service itself, which would never have been revealed prior to participation. Hence, exposing students to compulsory community service is crucial due to its capability to instill pride in and inspire adolescents underappreciated by the standards of classic academic views. Holistic education is by far the most valuable one. Community service’s essentiality to a student’s learning is evident in its ability to provide professional skills—rarely or poorly taught in traditional academic institutions, embed appreciation for a diligent and thorough work ethic, and inspire students to pursue true interests, rather than confine themselves to core subjects