1-27-11

Dear TEACHER_NAME,

I think it would be a really good idea if you required all of the students here at SCHOOL_NAME to participate in community service. It teaches kids responsibility, and gives them a sense of purpose. At first it may seem like a chore, however, I'm sure that after a while most of us will come to enjoy helping others in the community.

Many of the clubs at school already require community service. For example, National Junior Honor Society, Student Council, Young Ladies of Distinction all require community service, and still others such as Students for Christ certainly encourage community service. The types of students that are in these clubs that require community service are usually the kids that also behave well in class, get reasonably good grades, and don't get into much trouble outside of school. Isn't this how you would like all students at SCHOOL_NAME to behave? It certainly sounds nice to me.

Some private high schools in our area require community service to graduate. Many more clubs in the public high schools require community service hours than here at the middle school level. Requiring community service now would prepare all of us for the future and teach us how to be good citizens. It would also help keep the trouble makers out of trouble. If you required community service hours to be completed in order to play sports, stay after school, join certain clubs, or, your personal favorite, you could keep our report cards until we finished the hours, then, we would all have to spend at least some of our free time completing the assigned community service hours and not doing things to get in trouble.

Over time, the hours we spend helping others might become one of our favorite things to do. It might give us a sense of pride for doing something useful for someone else instead of just sitting around, wasting away in front of the TV. Please consider my thoughts when you make your decision on whether or not to require community service hours for our school.

Sincerely,

STUDENT_NAME