Compulsory community service plan gets mixed reaction.

Compulsory community service plan gets mixed reaction. :

"'Getting young people involved in society, having them contribute to community service is incredibly important, but this is exactly the wrong way to go about it,' she said.

'They're going to start seeing, whether it be military service or community service, as something that they're forced to do."

Making something compulsory isn't necessarily force. I have to compulsorily shop, clean, wash myself, look after others, go to work...There are consequences if I do not.Part of my education was helping those in need. In order to score points for our houses we had to participate in sport, put on plays, participate in choral events, read and help those in need. The Houses would organise our charity and would come up with a list of what we had to do to gain points. I can remember at one stage we had to collect milk bottle tops because the aluminium was going to be sold and the funds give to an old peoples' home. Likewise , we were told we had to bake little cakes and sell them and the money went towards buying a piano for a community music group. As a school we had access to resources and skills and it was relatively easy for us to do whatever we were asked. It also formed a basis for all sorts of useful discussion of our own and in class. Students at school are asked to participate in literacy and numeracy tests, they are asked to participate in work experience. Some schools expect participation in sports, music or debating teams. In this sense these things are compulsory and are forced, but the resultant impact on the students adds to their knowledge and their character. Given it's the Young Labour members who have come up with this, then I think it is worth listening to. This is the first I have heard from any young political group and I think it requires a decent hearing because they are our future and may well understand their target group better than we do. There is no reason why it cannot be tried out for a year or two and then commented upon, or tried out in a couple of schools or one school in each state. A pilot programme. Something like community service might make school more meaningful to those students who find the daily grind in the classroom not to their liking. They might prefer the community based stuff. I am thinking of thoses little boys in the recent Edinburgh Tattoo who clearly enjoyed their motor cycling challenges and thrived on it. They were all from very under privileged backgrounds, but they certainly were not under privileged on the night of the tattoo. They were brilliant.