One thing my mother always told me from a young age is that "schools were not created solely as an avenue to read and write". According to her the school is arguably one of the best places that should teach children about being good people since a huge chunk of their lives is spent there. As a young student who has indulged in tossing plastic bottles carelessly , contributing to littering the environment and watching cleaners tidy up a room you contributed to messing up without even thinking to help clean it up, being told that there is a mandatory community service activity before graduation inevitably feels like some sort of sanction for an unknown offense. Now imagine a student who has contributed to the littering problem for a very long time is placed with the responsibility of keeping the surroundings clean, this feels almost ironic.
All bullshit aside, I truly support the perspective of indoctrinating community service into schools since I believe that kids should be taught the relevance of helping others and contributing to the growth of the community instead of focusing solely on academic work. However, I am of the opinion that it should be introduced as part of the academic syllabus from an early stage so it becomes a normal experience for them instead of just whipping it out like a surprise package towards the end of their high school journey.
A very huge error I have seen numerous education systems make over the years is how they always distinguish character growth as if it should not be a part of the learning process. A child can get a perfect score in all his subjects, even going as far as having the topics that revolves around positive ethics and moral values as his/her all time favourites yet when it comes to exhibit the characteristics of what they have enjoyed in the classroom, they completely suck at it. They may know what helping others mean and what contributing to the society stands for but all of that means absolutely nothing if they cannot practicalize what they are being taught willingly. This is a very good reason why community service should be made a part of school activities from the very beginning.
Every child should slowly understand that ensuring that the surroundings are neat, engaging in activities that provide support to others and contributing to public safety are normal things we should all participate in. At a young age, they can simply start from keeping their classrooms clean, learning about how the tools for clean ups are used. As they continue to move higher in their academics, organized activities that involve more people will be introduced so when they finally see the compulsory community service, it would seem like nothing more than a work in a part instead of as an unnecessary chore with warning attached.
With this type of approach, even though it is virtually impossible to get a 100% good result, a lot of students will embrace this as the norm going as far as to exhibit it's positive trait even after secondary school.... Thanks for your time
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