Jonah+BC’s+OpEd+Article

The amount of paperwork and bullshiiiicrap to turn in community service hours at Foothill is ridiculous: Just down right ridiculous. For one, why are there so many different forms to turn in hours? What is the function of having a form for ongoing service hours plus a completely separate one for special one day services. Then on top of that a cranky librarian who's constant condescending tone makes one feel like a complete imbecile for choosing the incorrect form.

Also, community service should be about actually helping the community, not accommodating some bureaucratic process installed to simply make students comply with fulfilling the required service hours to graduate. The biggest example of this more self centered approach to "helping" the community are the questions actually being asked on the service write up: "What business skills did you gain or improve through this community service?" "What career did you observe in action during your community service?" "Did this experience help you narrow down career choices or possibilities for further career exploration?"... I thought we were suppose to help the greater community from the pure goodness of our hearts, not to simply narrow down our future life choices which might in turn allot the highest income. Plus a central rule for the service to count is it can't entail a pay check. So why are these questions even on the write up?? How is working in a soup kitchen or helping in a senior center going to help someone narrow down their career choices in the future? hmm, I don't know about anyone else but I don't want to be a professional in-need senior citizen.

Obviously community service is a good thing and it is great that Foothill puts such an emphasis on completing many hours of it, however I feel that the reasons behind having service as a graduation requirement may be a bit more complex and superficial than simply "we just want to give back". With that said, break out the hours write ups and lets do work.. or not, the choice is--- the Foothill administration's.