Day of Service: What are the benefits?

Unless this is your first year here at MHS, chances are that you’ve already been acquainted with the Day of Service. The whole point of the program is to get high school students to take a more active role in their community by providing them with local volunteer opportunities. The validity of this is drawn into question, of course, when said volunteer opportunities are made mandatory for graduation. At that point it becomes less “good natured volunteering” and more “forced manual labor.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to helping the community, and I think that the Day of Service program helps a lot of people, but we should at least call it what it is, because I can tell you that if given the option, a big chunk of all our lovely volunteers would opt out.

This doesn’t pertain to everyone, however, as there are still the proud few that would choose to help even when presented with the option not to. One of these kind souls is senior Neil Grant, who, when asked about his devotion to his community, stated “I love helping udders.” Truly an inspiration. Neil is in the minority, however, as others would simply rather spend their time doing something other than community service. The general consensus seems to be that the day of service is a waste of time, with many students agreeing that the very idea of “mandatory volunteering” is itself contradictory. However, we can’t make such a broad statement without some direct comment from the students themselves, so we asked them directly. One student agreed when presented with the statement that the whole idea is a waste of time and admitted that he would opt out of volunteering were he actually given a choice. Others felt that the idea itself had some promise, but the execution was a bit sloppy. For instance, it can get very hot being so close to summer, and depending on the project water can be in short supply. If you’re going to make students go out of their way to work in the sun, you should at least assure that they’re able to do so comfortably. We polled some students in the cafeteria and these are some of their reactions.

“Hey, you. What are your opinions on the Day of Service? Good? Bad? Yes? No?”

“Umm. Good.”

“Let me rephrase that. Do you think it’s a waste of time, and would you continue to do it if you were actually given a choice?”

“Umm, yes and no.”

“So yes to the first question and no to the second?”

“Yep.”

~~~

“Hey, bud, what do you think about the Day of Service?”

“Well you get to miss school for a day, so that’s good I guess.”

“Is that it?”

“I mean it can get pretty hot, and there isn’t always water, but yeah.”

~~~

“Hey, what do you think about the Day of Service?”

“Well last year I got put in a group with people I didn’t like, and had to spend the whole day dealing with that.”

“Yeah but that’s just part of the sign-up process, it’s gonna happen to some people.”

“Yeah well I still don’t like staying at school after it’s done.”

“Alright then.”

~~~

“What do you think about the Day of Service?”

“Um, I think it’s a good way to help out and improve the community, and um, make Madison a better place.”

“Really?”

“Umm…”

~~~

While many MHS students seem to be opposed to the day of service, the service that the school provides to various organizations in the area strongly benefits the community.  The work that can be done by about 850 students in one day is always a positive contribution. The day of service teaches many students who don’t usually participate in these activities the value of how their contributions can benefit other people and the community in general. This is slightly undermined, however, by the tendency of the students to latch on to the petty inconveniences and allow that to form their opinion of the program as a whole. It could be better, but when the biggest complaints are about a lack of water, or that summer is hot, or that we have to go back to school, it could also be a lot worse.

The issue when it comes to the Day of Service is that it exists solely to benefit the students. There are a mandatory number of volunteer hours that students are required to have in order to graduate, but a very small number of people actually go out of their way to do community service. In order to compensate for this and to assure that more than ten students graduate per year, the Day of Service was put into place to give students the proper number of hours. So with that in mind, it isn’t possible to dismiss the Day of Service as a waste of time and get rid of it entirely without screwing over 90% of kids in the school. What can be done is remedying the little things that get in the way, and simply making it an overall better experience for those involved. This becomes a challenge, however, when the gripes that students have with the program are totally and utterly solvable by themselves. Too hot? It’s summer, bring sunscreen and dress lightly. Not enough water at the events? You are literally instructed to bring your own water for that exact reason. Don’t like having to return to school after the project is over? Pick a longer one, or deal with the fact that it is indeed a school day and you will be in school.

The Day of Service program is far from perfect, but given that the vast majority of gripes that students have with it stems from personal preferences, its cons are outweighed by its pros.