There are many paths to self-fulfillment and a productive life. It is the high school’s job to teach these teenagers how to achieve their dream and to give them the resources to do it, all the while making the world a better place. Students must learn how they can benefit the community around them. Therefore, the single most important purpose of high school should be to prepare students on how to be active participants of the community. Adolescence is a great time to instill the importance of community service, the community would benefit from the young activists, and the students would gain many benefits as well.
An adolescent is at the perfect stage in life to teach how to be active participants in the community. They are old enough to know a sense of responsibility and contribute to the community. Adolescence is one of the most fascinating and complex transitions in the life span. This is a time of accelerated growth and change; a time of expanding horizons, self-discovery, and emerging independence. Also it is a time of transformation from childhood to adulthood. Its beginning is associated with extreme physical, behavioral, and social transformations that correspond with the move to junior high school.
The events of this phase can shape an individual’s entire life course and thus, the future of our society. Therefore it is important to intervene early to prevent later problems and promote more successful outcomes. Adolescence, in fact is the last phase of life in which society has reasonably ready access to virtually the entire population, so the potential for constructive influence is great. Being a kid is the most important stage of anyone’s life. It’s a time when you start to develop a personality.
It’s when you start to learn about who you are, and what you want to do with yourself; a time when teenagers develop trust. It’s a time when they learn how to be a person in society. If teenagers don’t grow up learning how to be a productive person, then they are going to have a problem once they grow-up and so will society. The community would benefit from the students providing community service. The service activities the students engage in are often designed to address a specific community problem, meet a particular need, and often serve to build the capacity of the community organization.
Community members who interact with the teenagers would change their perceptions of youth, seeing them as assets and resources that contribute to the community in positive ways, rather than, a nuisance to society and destructive individuals. There are also a number of cases where service-learning is directly associated with more support for the school in the form of increased number of school volunteers and passage of tax levies in support of schools. Other benefits to the community would include the obvious physical beautification aspects.
For example, a cleaner community results from students working as a team to pick up trash on the side of the road or public areas and make the environment better in the community. Along with benefiting the community, students would gain a lot of knowledge, social skills and self-esteem. When community service is conducted, students will show improvements in academic achievement, including standardized tests. The academic benefit of community service comes when teachers match service activities to standards and learning objectives, and when they design instruction that maximizes learning.
For example, community service learning that involves tutoring will result in learning for both of the individuals who participate, the tutor actually learns as much if not more than the person being tutored. Community Service that includes environmental activities that often provide student gains in the content areas; Such as math by relating to measurements, problem solving and science with predictions and outcomes if these knowledge and skill areas are put into the experience. The academic gains come because students have greater opportunity to explore and engage in dialogue for understanding and become more engrossed in the tasks.
Community service has strong effects on several areas related to character, such as reduction of risky behavior, and promoting an ethic of service. It promotes responsibility, trustworthiness, and caring for others. All of which are positive character traits. Character development occurs because students are often given responsibility for outcomes in community service settings and are more likely to engage in team building tasks and joint productive activity. They learn not to let each other down or to disappoint those people they are helping.
They also develop bonds with adults, other than parents and teachers, providing them with more sources of guidance that they can use for advice. Young people who engage in community service are less likely to participate in bad behaviors, such as smoking, unprotected sex, and drug use. Community service can lead to fewer teenage pregnancies; due to community service providing something to do. This is most important during after school hours, it gives students exposure to alternative career pathways to pursue.
Young people who participate in community service would more likely acquire an ethic of service and continue volunteer work as they get older. In today’s classroom, students have different backgrounds, a variety of accomplishment levels, and different learning styles which will all affect their ability to acquire knowledge. Teenagers need to see and feel that one person can make a difference. They need a taste of real world knowledge outside of a classroom environment. They need to develop skills for becoming independent learners and workers who can adapt to change, take responsibility for their work, and lead others.
Society needs this! Teachers in high school need to allow students to see how what they are learning connects with their lives and the world around them. As well as bringing these young adults into the community and playing and active part in it their lives, helping them become good citizens, and becoming active participants of the community. High schools will be giving the world a well rounded independent asset to society. The student can live his or her dreams while making America a better place.
