Last month the Palm Beach County School Board was once again considering mandatory volunteerism as a requirement for graduation from high school.
Does no one on the Board understand that forced volunteerism is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms? Does no one on the Board further understand that forced volunteerism is unconstitutional (the Thirteenth Amendment proscribes “involuntary servitude”)?
The Founding Fathers wrote a declaration of independence, not a mandate for servitude. Their credo was life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — the pursuit of one’s own happiness, not that of others.
It is certainly not immoral to volunteer to help someone. But forcing someone to do so is a violation of his or her personal freedom. As Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Nothing could so completely divest us of our liberty as the establishment of the opinion that the state has a perpetual right to the services of all of its members”.
Politicians today are fond of asking (or in this case, forcing) people to “give something back to society”. Well, we live in a society where nearly one-third of all high school seniors fail to meet minimum graduation requirements. If students were taught better reading, writing and thinking skills, thus paving the way to more productive careers, they, and by extension, society, would benefit immeasurably.
As for “giving something back” to parents who pay thousands of dollars in school taxes every year, how about if our School Board stuck to helping the children of those parents become better students, not better servants.
