-Why is there a lack of participation?: Most likely, it is due to a lack of time and/or interest. There aren’t that many people who have enough free time to dedicate a couple hours a week to volunteer work or assistance to community services, let alone students, who usually have their hands full with classes and homework. In addition, schedule discrepancies between those of students and those of benevolent organizations can render otherwise willing volunteers incapable of lending a helping hand to their society. Unfortunately, even if service learning programs can be helpful and educational (not to mention extremely useful to have on your resume), students are either unexcited at the prospect, or simply have too many other duties and hobbies they need to keep track of. The second element is probably more significant and, unfortunately, universal: people just don’t feel like helping. If you have only two hours of time off from work and responsibilities (chores, children, cooking, cleaning and such) a day, something tells me you wouldn’t spend them all volunteering at your local community center, but rather do something for yourself, like exercise or watch television…Everyone wants “me” time, and everyone wants to make time for it. Volunteer work, one way or another, is impressively time-consuming, and some people don’t have very much time to consume. Also, many students need to support themselves, if only partially: why in the world would they go and do unpaid labour while they could be working and making money to support themselves and their basic needs? After all, it is good to volunteer and help your fellow man or whatnot, but I think many students desire a roof above their heads first and foremost.
-Which is better, volunteering or service learning?: In my opinion, neither one outweighs the other, though I do believe Service learning is better for students, since it can offer somewhat real-world experiences to students. After all, if you were studying to be a teacher, wouldn’t it be practical to get a little hands-on practice? And doesn’t the same go for pilots, blacksmiths, policemen or doctors? Experience is useful, and service learning (in most cases) can result in a big payoff when it comes down to it. Although, service learning is sometimes more difficult to find, and does not always appeal to students who desire experience in one specific domain (I for example, would like to be a professional writer, but I doubt I’d get much experience watching somebody slave away at their keyboard for hours on end).
-What is the best way to encourage people to get involved?: Honestly, I don’t exactly know how to answer that question…Sure you can go around preaching that community service looks good on a resume or that it is morally just to help people in need, but there will always be those that want to help others at all costs and those who just don’t give a damn, as well as the majority, which fall in between these two poles. Of course, offering a monetary recompense in exchange of services would attract the greedier or needier folks, but if that were the case, it wouldn’t be called volunteer work anymore, now would it? Also, many people (students especially) are convinced that somebody else will take care of it, or that it doesn’t concern them either (and in some cases, it doesn’t). In my opinion, the best way to get people involved is to give people what they want: more flexible hours, money, fame, and help in return…That’s all I can think of. Humans are greedy, egocentric animals, even if they are socially advanced: nobody does anything without a reason. Students simply have things more important to them than assuring immigrants receive proper support or that the homeless are served soup. It’s sad and crass really, but it’s the truth.
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