Community service requirements are widely enforced in American high schools to give students a well-rounded perspective and perhaps a more thoughtful approach to life. But some schools, dubious, or at least skeptical, of the positive nature of the requirements are rethinking their policies.
Lauren Swierczek, a community service director at Riverdale Country School, a private school in the Bronx, felt the service hours as a requirement for graduation perpetuated feigned altruism among many students. She noticed students whose parents shelled out thousands of dollars to travel agencies to send their children on “community service hours tours” to exotic countries, where vacationing is the prime focus, but some peripheral community service with the locals is managed. Swierczek also noted cases of forged documents, where students only fulfilled the necessary service hours on paper without actually doing the work.
Understandably, Swierczek wanted students to take pride in their community service, so she reworked the service hours requirement at Riverdale to mandate community service hours among school-sponsored groups, not individuals. The groups’ projects are first approved by her. Other schools have cut down the required hours so that students will be more interested in doing charitable work instead of limiting themselves to work that will provide the most service hours.
