Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

High School "Service Hours"
me

Posted on 05/04/2013 9:54:14 PM PDT by MacMattico

So it seems daughters school is stressing "service hours" (volunteer hours) as the only way to get into a decent college. Daughter has high grades in every class, has a full course load, band, two varsity sports and a couple of clubs. More then I ever did and I went to a respectable institution of higher learning! And... Gasp... May even have to get a job in a year or so when she wants that car she keeps talking about!

But no! Not enough! Now the school demands, and backs it up with college admissions material, that kids must have at least 300 hours of community services by graduation. My daughter has helped in the community but is not interested in the liberal nonsense being demanded. For instance, a group of kids sat out in make shift cardboard box "houses" overnight sneaking in pizza and fooling around and got 8 hours of community service for "learning what it's like to be homeless". Seriously! Daughters Guidance Counselor even said "In this world where colleges are taking an holistic approach at admissions, as a non-minority middle class kid you can't just expect to coast by on your excellent grades and a few sports and clubs." Shouldn't you be helping others because you want to, not because the school system demands we create more liberal community organizers? I feel like they're pushing kids to lie and make up fake service hours!


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education
KEYWORDS: college; communityservice; education
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-78 next last
My daughter works hard for her grades, in sports, she leaves for school at 7:00 and gets home at 5:30! And they tell her it's not enough! She's in HS, and no she doesn't want to be home schooled (enjoys most classes, clubs, sports, good friends). Why when a kid is doing things right do schools push them down? No wonder so many just drop out, say the hell with it, and don't learn anything. And don't even get me started on the USELESS homework!
1 posted on 05/04/2013 9:54:14 PM PDT by MacMattico
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

Oops.. Guess I forgot the “vanity” in the title.


2 posted on 05/04/2013 9:54:58 PM PDT by MacMattico
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico
Do they have to go to a "decent collage" there plenty of state/community collages out there where they can learn come out with a degree and make a living.

With out saddling them with a pile of debt.

3 posted on 05/04/2013 10:01:37 PM PDT by riverrunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

This is far from new, and the problem’s even deeper. Even high school academic and athletic awards depend on “service,” and that service is variously and arbitrarily defined. If you can’t fight it with the local schools and school boards, there’s no way you can fight it with admissions offices. I’d bet the ranch that it’s code for discriminating against home-schoolers and Conservatives. The only good news is that there are some colleges out there that don’t insist on these banalities.


4 posted on 05/04/2013 10:06:55 PM PDT by Mach9
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

My son’s school requires 40 hours over his 4 years of high school. He helps out with technology at various events, like updating computer displays, running a video camera, etc. He’s already earned over half his required hours and gets to have fun to boot.

I agree that it is ridiculous, but luckily we were able to find him something productive to do, no liberal spin stuff, and it gives him IT experience.


5 posted on 05/04/2013 10:14:22 PM PDT by ODC-GIRL (We live in interesting times)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

This is a mandate in California high schools. I had my daughter do hers at our church. It is the governments effort to turn everyone into a community organizer or sympathetic to them. I found offensive ten years ago and still do


6 posted on 05/04/2013 10:16:09 PM PDT by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

Totally get it.
My youngest was volunteering at church....
swim team
going to the junior college for her junior and senior year
(that does save on college)
7:30- 5 and then 5-6 hours of home work......
It is horrible but for just a season.
What she did was petition the principle and stated her pint that church work WERE volunteer hours.
She sited laws and regulations........
He accepted her petition, which included mission trips.
Mother/father never give up encourage her to push forward.....and if all fails jounior college solves many problems.

(psst out daughter graduated from a private Christian college at 20, because she pushed.......saved us a bunch of mine)
ping private Freepmail if you want details


7 posted on 05/04/2013 10:16:13 PM PDT by svcw (If you are dead when your heart stops, why aren't you alive when it starts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

Test Out of College: Graduate in 1 Year With Degree-By-Examination
http://blog.brazencareerist.com/2012/06/19/test-out-of-college-graduate-in-1-year-with-degree-by-examination/

Hard Work University
http://www.cofo.edu/

Americans head north for affordable college degrees
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/24/17882085-americans-head-north-for-affordable-college-degrees


8 posted on 05/04/2013 10:19:47 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I'll raise $2million for Sarah Palin's presidential run. What'll you do?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

I haven’t tried to get any kids into college lately, but I’m told, and I’ve read in the Wall St. Journal, that what elite schools REALLY love is if the kid comes up with their OWN service project, plans it, coordinates it, makes it happen, sees it through, writes it up in a nice neat way that can then be submitted to the school (or better yet, post it in a blog, to show other kids how to replicate the same service project, if it really is useful in some way). So instead of kowtowing to their liberal BS ideas of what a service project should be, why can’t she come up with a good conservative project? (Though perhaps she shouldn’t *label* it as Conservative if she doesn’t want their heads to explode! LOL!) Maybe something to help armed services families, or to promote adoption instead of abortion, or ... um, can’t think of any others right now but it’s late and I’m tired. I bet you and your daughter could come up with several more good ideas. Don’t let them stuff your daughter into a pigeonhole! Have her make her own pigeonhole! LOL! :)


9 posted on 05/04/2013 10:21:21 PM PDT by Hetty_Fauxvert (FUBO, and the useful idiots you rode in on!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico
Maybe volunteer for the NRA's Eddie Eagle gun safety program. That should make some liberal administrator's head spin.

I'm just glad I didn't have to mess with that BS back in the 1980s.

10 posted on 05/04/2013 10:22:20 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

Same thing happened at my HS, and it was a prerequisite. But don’t fret as your daughter will be fine. No sane, normal 18 year old takes this liberal crap seriously unless you are a frothing at the mouth Obamaturd. My “community outreach” (that was it was called) was volunteering at the local cop office.

And I didn’t volunteer because it was a cop’s office. It was because there were a lot of hot girls there from the university who also volunteered. ;)


11 posted on 05/04/2013 10:25:03 PM PDT by max americana (fired liberals in our company after the election, & laughed while they cried (true story))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Nifster

We will go the GED route if any more silly requirements come up, although church work would be OK. No longer looking at higher education even though we have prestigious PhDs in the family and such — we want to be out of the mainstream as much as possible. No need or desire for high income or status. Daughters can continue living frugally as we do now.


12 posted on 05/04/2013 10:25:54 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: steve86

can a student get a ged at age 16 and quit school? That would work.


13 posted on 05/04/2013 10:35:49 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: DIRTYSECRET

Actually I was really screwed up as a kid. These ‘volunteer’ projects seem to require parental involvement-the reason I was so screwed up. This ‘volunteering’ requirement really stacks the deck. You want to be left alone to succeed on your own terms and they just won’t leave you alone.


14 posted on 05/04/2013 10:40:17 PM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: steve86

There are plenty of good colleges out there that will provide your daughters with additional opportunities in life.

Unless you are Amish( and your computer usage suggests you are not) then depriving them of additional education or training is not a good thing


15 posted on 05/04/2013 10:47:00 PM PDT by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: DIRTYSECRET

This happened to my granddaughter when she was about 16. She wanted to quit school. Her mom had a fit and went to talk to the school’s guidance counselor who told her that said daughter was bored. She was told to let my gd take the GED which she did. She made the highest score ever made. She has had some college classes and will go back after her little girl gets older. Do not understand why the schools do not teach at the good students’ level instead of taking everyone down.


16 posted on 05/04/2013 11:00:49 PM PDT by MamaB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Hetty_Fauxvert

Yes, lately she’s been trying to come up with her own plan and create her own way of getting in these service hours. We have an adopted daughter in the family, so that suggestion might be good. Also a relative is a gun collector, teaches the hunters safety course and gun safety. Maybe she can assist him and offer self protection classes! The school administrators would faint!


17 posted on 05/04/2013 11:02:50 PM PDT by MacMattico
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

The issue is “decent school.” Basically either your kid has straight As and is going to get into Harvard or you should not waste your money and time or worry about her getting into a lower level “decent school.” The second tier private schools like Duke for example get you nothing that you won’t get from the best public university in your state.


18 posted on 05/04/2013 11:04:06 PM PDT by JLS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

Good schools are getting tired of receiving applications where it’s clear that the student is playing a numbers game to get so much of this, so much of that, etc, etc.

Now they’re looking for students who really care about something and demonstrate it. They want to know that you have a passion, that you’ve committed the time and energy to pursue it, and that you have some record of achievement.

They’re looking for leaders, not for people who follow a recipe.


19 posted on 05/04/2013 11:04:37 PM PDT by AZLiberty (No tag today.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MacMattico

High grades and high test scores are the most important thing. Volunteer hours are easy to creatively manufacture from stuff most teenagers already do. School clubs have their ow projects that work to meet these requirements. If our oldest son can manage to accrue volunteer hours, then anyone can. He is NOT college material. He does like to work hard at manual labor though. Girls are less likely to do that. Our daughter’s counselor came up with plenty of volunteer hours for our daughter via tutoring, promoting school language programs, and even working/running the snack bar for another school’s baseball team. Daughter used her skills (languages) to meet her volunteer quota. The snack bar stuff was extra. This worked out well with baseball leagues. Parents hate to work the snack bar.

While I think this volunteerism requirement is stupid, it is easy to do and usually something most teenagers do anyway through church activities and school activities. All the homeschoolers we know have no problem documenting volunteer activities that they do.


20 posted on 05/04/2013 11:06:42 PM PDT by petitfour
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-78 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson