School lacks librarian so it can track mandatory service work

Let's get a few things clear: "Mandatory volunteerism" is an oxymoron - and it violates the spirit of what volunteering is all about.

And I think a public school having unpaid service requirements for graduation is unconstitutional. Courts haven't agreed, because constitutional law isn't exactly a high priority in America's courts these days, but that's another matter.

I haven't favored such programs, and I think these requirements go against the grain of community.

However, one school in Boulder, Colorado, sees things a bit differently from how a constitutional legal eagle should. New Vista High School is so eager to implement its new mandatory unpaid labor requirement that it's willing to sacrifice literacy for it.

The school has assigned faculty members to track whether students comply with the new rule and determine whether students' service projects meet the school's goals.

That comes at a massive cost to the school. So how does the school pay for it? By eliminating the school librarian's job. "The way we pay for it is we don't have a librarian," the principal boasted.

The school likes having its library books scattered and inaccessible, I guess.

I also get the feeling the school won't approve students' service projects unless they meet the school's ideology. America has been down this road before: One school that required "community service" for graduation prohibited students from volunteering for organizations that supported relaxing America's draconian marijuana laws. However, the school allowed pupils to volunteer for organizations that took the opposite stance.

Schools have also forced students to fulfill their "community service" requirements by working for free at for-profit businesses. This is a problem not just from the unpaid labor standpoint: It also takes jobs away from paid workers.

These requirements also take time away from students who already have a job.

It doesn't matter how progressive a city or county is: America's schools are almost always on the right wing of the spectrum. And they're probably not going to approve service projects that dissent from this order.

Of course, that doesn't stop one local activist from demanding the Boulder Valley School District make "community service" a requirement in all its schools, at every grade level.

It's a shame that in modern America, schools are considered the final arbiters of community life. With the poor quality and bad attitudes displayed by our schools, that's worse than simply unwieldy.

(Source: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/mar/09/community-service-requirement-pitched-to-boulder)