How much community service should the school ask students to do?

Right now, Advisory asks us to do next to nothing. Expanding the National Honor Society’s 15-hour-per-year requirement for its members to the whole school would better serve our community. It would also encourage students to select a more meaningful activity that they would be more likely to continue beyond just 15 hours.

According to social studies teacher Jennifer Martin, who coordinates the Advisory program, freshmen are asked to participate in a food drive, and sophomores are required to fulfill one hour of community service within the school. Juniors are assigned an hour outside of school, and seniors assist with the school’s recycling three times. Junior and Senior Mentors fulfill their requirement through their mentorship.

Martin said that when the Advisory program began, its creators wanted to give students a sense of citizenship.

“The entire purpose of the community service requirement in Advisory is simply to introduce the idea of community service and the different ways in which you can be a community member,” Martin said. “It is not supposed to be something that is imposed, that becomes unreasonable.”

Students in the National Honor Society, which constitutes a majority of the senior class, are asked to fulfill a 15-hour requirement of community service from induction in the fall of senior year to graduation, according to special education teacher Brendan Kobus, who is a co-leader of National Honor Society. Students can opt to participate in service individually or with their peers.

There are several reasons why this more robust requirement is better for students and our community than that imposed by Advisory.

For one, introducing students to community service and hoping they’ll be inspired to continue, should be only a part of the rationale behind the requirement. The Advisory requirement actually benefits the community far less by being so small.

“We have such a large group of students. When you multiply that by fifteen hours, then we produce an incredible amount of service for the community,” Kobus said of the NHS requirement.

Imagine, then, how much could get done if almost two thousand students had this requirement, instead of just the few hundred of NHS.

Liz Whipple ’14 wrote in a spot-on opinion piece for the Sagamore that it doesn’t make sense for only the students in NHS to have a community service requirement, suggesting that expanding the requirement to the entire senior class would foster class unity.

“But how does it make any sense that only kids with a 3.3 GPA and higher should be expected to help their community?” she asked. “Wouldn’t it make much more sense to have a grade-wide service requirement? Not only would it unite the class, it would also force more students to think about what they can do that interests them while giving back to the community.”

Whipple raises very good questions here. Asking non-seniors to serve their community too would lead to a larger sense of unity and benefit the community even more.

As Martin said, the Advisory requirement is not intended to feel imposing. It certainly accomplishes that. Asking students to give up the equivalent of several Sundays during the school year would impose slightly more, but it would be worth it for the increased amount of service provided for the community.

“I think 15 hours is reasonable but also productive,” Kobus said. “I think a lot of amazing things can happen in 15 hours of community service. A lot of good can be done.”

The hope that students continue the service after the requirement seems far more probable if students select a meaningful activity they’re willing to do for 15 hours, as Whipple argues. It would become a meaningful commitment as opposed to an hour that can be quickly forgotten.

Kobus praised Advisory for introducing community service to students, saying it can serve as “inspiration for greater continued service.” He suggested that the requirement should expand to school-wide service days for seniors. Kobus also said that not being a member of NHS should not prevent students from serving their community.

Expanding the school-wide service requirement to 15 hours per year, and according to Kobus, offering opportunities to serve alongside one’s peers, would strengthen the “inspiration for greater continued service.” It would benefit the Brookline community far more without being an unreasonable imposition on students’ time.

This summer, Martin said, a meeting is being held to discuss Advisory and community service. Let’s hope a far more meaningful requirement, both for students and for our community, is instituted.

Want to write for Opinions? Contact us at [email protected].