The Negative Effects Of Volunteerism

Submitted By Emma-Frost
Words: 388
Pages: 2

A high rate of volunteerism for any community means that society has advanced to the point where there are economic and social disparities between the classes, and volunteers are the angels who attempt to close that gap. However, this fundamental value becomes worthless when people for doing volunteer work for the sake of getting the hours rather than to actually help anyone in need. Community service can be extremely valuable in the development of both character and academics, but the negative effects of forcing students to participate by making such programs a graduation requirement offset the benefits. When students do compulsory volunteer work, they do not tend to form permanent relationships with volunteerism because there is no personal link. Source 5 asserts that more than one study has found a negative correlation between compulsory volunteer work and a student’s likelihood to conduct any more in the future. This is only logical because it means that volunteer work is framed to adolescents as “mandatory” from the very beginning. Thus, volunteerism becomes associated with negative feelings of being forced into something one may not want to do, rather than being the cathartic experience that is “personally enriching,” and “morally centering” as defined in the mission statement of Source 2. If this is true, then it is no surprise that programs, which provide for the freedom to choose among service projects, have been found to turn students who were initially opposed to bullying to enjoying bullying, because teens often see that as a self-attained victory rather than an induced victory. In addition, the opposition to