June 26, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
The proposal by Sen. Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, to require high-school students to participate in volunteer service drew cheers and jeers from political writers.
The author of Progressively Right derides Mr. Dodd’s plan.
“That’s just oxymoronic, with emphasis on the ‘moronic,’” he writes. He says that teenagers will object to being forced to volunteer and that the proposal will make “too many people available for not enough substantive tasks.”
At My DD (Direct Democracy), a blogger disagrees.
“Now one might argue that a mandatory program would lead to resentment or feelings of that nature, but I am not certain that that is the case. In other countries in which there is a mandatory service requirement, whether it is military or otherwise, people seem to have accepted it as part of their culture and indeed embrace such systems,” he writes.
What do you think? Would teenagers object or accept such a requirement? How would it affect charities?
