Service learning' or community service on the school curriculum, has been gaining ground in the United States throughout the nineties. The advantages of community service by schoolchildren are well-known.
Students develop new skills, greater self-esteem, and more enthusiasm for school.
Communities benefit as energetic young people help in nursing homes and day care centres, plant trees and pick up roadside trash. There are also legal objections to mandatory service. Three high school students in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania sued the school board on the grounds that the service requirement violated the constitutional prohibition of slavery. The students were represented by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian group who have represented students in two other similar cases. The service requirement violated the constitutional prohibition of slavery' Whether or not mandatory service is moral or legal, making working as a volunteer just one more demand imposed on students may prejudice them against future volunteer work.