Dear Principal,

Community service should not be required by all students. Although community service is a wonderful thing, service should never be forced. I think it shouldn't be required because when students are required to do something they usually don't want to do it and because maybe someone's life really is too busy for it.

Forcing someone to do service defeats the point of it. When you are serving others you are doing it to be kind, but if you had no option then you're doing it for no reason. People are always grateful when others serve them but most of the time they aren't as thankful if they know that serving them wasn't the persons option, and had they been given a choice they probably wouldn't have done it.

Teenagers don't like it when they are told what to do. It's a rebellious stage of life when they think they can do whatever pleases them. So naturally if someone tells them that they absolutely must do something, they automatically think no way. If they have an attitude like this it will ruin the experience and they won't get the good feeling people do when you serve others. They might dislike it so much that they don't even do service when they're grown up. They resent people that tell them they have to do something, and then they are ornery towards everyone else afterwards.

Another reason community service shouldn't be required is because someone might not have time. If they had lots of little siblings and both their parents were at work all day, then they would have to watch them and they would never find time to do things such as community service. Also someone that doesn't excel in school but wanted to get a scholarship would probably have to be working very hard almost all day to get good enough grades. And if someone knew they had no chance at getting a scholarship, but still wanted to go to college would have to be working hard in school and they would need a job so they would be able to pay for all the expenses of college. Another example would be someone that isn't good in school but is very talented in sports. They would want to be doing their sport so that they could be good enough to get an athletic scholarship.

Therefore community service should be recommended to students, not required because when people serve they should do it willingly, and if they don't they won't have a good attitude about it. Teenagers have a mind of their own so being told what to do bothers them to the point of them never doing it again, and some peoples life may be full of various activities already so they simply don't have the time for it.

Thank you for your time,

STUDENT_NAME