The mere fact that Blasquez, someone, most people would assume to be for the hours, is against them means that something must be wrong with this picture. How, as teens, are we supposed to be driven enough to complete these hours, when even the people giving them to us don’t agree? I’m sure that I’m not alone in the thought that there must be a better way. There has to be a better solution, a better alternative so that teens will actually be motivated and inspired enough to want to help their community, rather than being forced to. Teens like senior Jacob Kleitman, have come up with different possibilities to make the hours less painful,
“I think if they changed it instead of [having] to do it in the semester that you’re taking civics, to maybe forty hours over your entire high school thing, it would be a lot easier then for students to get it done. Because then they wouldn’t feel pressure to get it done at a certain time, they could just do it gradually.” (Jacob)
Not to state the obvious, but the fact that teens like Jacob take the time to conjure up additional ways to get the hours means that it’s not the service that they dislike, but the manner in which they’re forced to serve them. Teens like Genny DiLeonardo and Evie Ortiz agree that community service is something that should be done, not because you’re forced to, but because you feel passionate about helping others. Genny expressed the fact that she volunteers because it helps the community, and it helps her, because the community can help her better by providing things that teens really want to do.
“I think it’s really important, I think it makes the community more [oriented] for them. For example, I’m in YAG, and if we didn’t ask the community for help to do dances, then they wouldn’t give them to us and we participate in all sorts of things and you just have to mix it up” (Genny, age 18)
In order to solve this problem of distaste towards community hours, teens need to do one of two things. The first thing is they need to find a way to make the hours more enjoyable for them. This can be done by either, completing the hours with friends, or possibly searching for a group to help before the deadline approaches. This way, the hours won’t seem as long, since, as we’ve all heard before, “Time flies when you’re having fun”. The second suggestion is to think of another way to get in the community service. If teens form plans that are reasonable for both teens and the administration, then perhaps the district might be able to change its policy to better help the students to help the community. Jacob’s suggestion of more hours, over a larger period of time, would benefit everyone involved in the situation. Teens would get credit, the community would get help, and the administration wouldn’t be met with such resentment over the idea of community service.