Community Service: Mandatory or Voluntary Essay

Community service is a topic that is highlighted in our society. Many people have different reasons for their participation in the service, having it be done for selfish reasons or unselfish reasons. However, participation is mandatory. This being the case, community service should be voluntary. Community service holds you back from doing certain things. High schools require 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. If you don’t complete these hours, it’ll keep you from moving on. Certain jobs require you to complete community service in certain tasks. Not doing such can earn you a penalty. Another example to support this claim is a quote from an article titled â€Å"The Benefits of Volunteerism, If the Service is Real†, is that â€Å"there is some cynicism among people that some portion of community service is prompted by students interested more in resume-building.† This goes to show that people have lost the initial purpose for community servi ce as a pass off to make themselves look good, rather than doing it for the cause alone. In addition, voluntary community service is more encouraged than mandatory. In the graphic â€Å"Attitude Toward Offering Students a Chance to do Community Service to Earn Money for College, By Age†, students were surveyed on whether or not they were in favor of doing community service for earning money for college. The survey was done from ages that ranged from 15-25 years old. Throughout the age range, the percentage of students who favor for community service to earn money or don’t favor varied. However, those favorable remained high in the 80% while those unfavorable remained low in the 20%. However, community service should be mandatory in certain situations. In the article â€Å"A Better Society? Or a Better Resume?†, mandatory community service is stressed. Model Naomi Campbell had to complete 5 days of community service as a result of hitting her maid in the head with a cellphone. She was set to work in a sanitation depot as a punishment. However, it tended to work out in her favor as it made her seem as she was doing it for the false altruism of her actions.