Serve or Fail is written by the author Dave Eggers who is knows for his memoir, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius."Dave Eggers suggests that college students should be required to give hours of public service, as a requirement of graduation.
Dave questions his readers on whether or not college students deserve time off from school. He states, "Well, yes and no. Yes, because finals week is stressful and sleep-deprived and possibly involves trucker-style stimulants. No, because a good deal of the four years of college is spent playing football." Dave feels as though there are to many hours in days and weeks, that being able to give a few hours with the community would be a positive thing-and colleges should require it as a service requirement to graduate.
According to Eggers, College students may me more involved, have time for, and benefit from community services, as well as higher maturity levels and more capable of multitasking. Whereas high school students are most likely not going to benefit from, and have less time. Eggers understands that this kind of requirement will not work for every college, considering community college students generally have family and work demands.
Eggers stresses it is more beneficial for for colleges to give credit for community services to students who are more then likely learning from those suffering from domestic abuse, then students who are earning credit in a physical education class.
I agree with Eggers reasoning on community service. I think that community service would be beneficial to more then just the students. Volunteering to help others no matter what the situation is at hand, can be a learning experience and even life changing. I think if colleges were to make this a requirement or give students a choice to do community service instead of taking classes that they do not need, or classes they will not benefit from is a much better idea. Who knows, some might end up being a lifelong volunteer with Eggers.
I also think this would be a good plan to implement into college. Students are probably more susceptible to the idea than people realize. Volunteering instead of taking a normal school course would be exhilarating a humbling experience. I also think the author kind of contradicts himself. He states that college students have too much time on their hands, so they should perform community service in place of a regular course. I think the time it takes to perform community service, especially the small amount of time he is recommending, would end of being equal or less to the course work. I really don’t think it has anything to do with college schedules. If a student liked the experience and continued too volunteer outside of school, then it would take up more time. From my interpretation, it wouldn’t be more time consuming. Anyways, I also think there could be many lifelong volunteers produced out of this, and I hope more states become open to the idea.
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