Required Public Service for College Students - Essay Example

However, when one makes volunteerism a requirement, simply for the sake of making it a requirement, how does that exemplify public service Doesn't that somehow do students a disservice, rendering public service as just "one more thing on the to-do list" What Eggers fails to argue for is the importance of the intrinsic motivation to do public service, which comes from the heart. Intrinsic motivation, as such, must come from within. Extrinsic motivation to perform public service-mainly, having the public service fulfill a requirement-is not a novel idea, nor an entirely negative one.

However, volunteers should want to perform public service out of the goodness of their hearts-not because it is on a checklist of requirements mandated by one's college or university.Eggers further makes the assumption that everyone could make a commitment that would allow students to earn college credit for performing public service. As he says, "Perhaps every 25 hours of service could be traded for one class credit, with a maximum of three credits a year."2 However, one downfall related to this proposition is that students will, again, not want to do public service out of the goodness of their hearts-but to move up in the world.

Further, performing public service does not really fulfill the requirement of having obtained some quantitative or empirical knowledge at the end of the course. In public service, there are no assignments, quizzes, homework, tests, papers, or other kinds of assessments. This is not to say public service is not valuable-however, how does one measure the kind of benefits public service provides on a transcript Does handing out bowls of soup at a homeless shelter constitute some sort of learning One can't give a quiz based on such an experience.

This author would argue that perhaps in performing public service, affective objectives are mainly reached-which deal mainly with the emotions and the human spirit. However, university study is primarily meant for gaining knowledge of quantifiable measurable subjects that can be explained and assessed. Public service, however, is a variety of actions that accomplish a certain goal-for example, a group of students using trash bags to clean up a dog park.