Dear Principal,

Students should not be required to perform community service in order to pass a class or grade. Community service should not be a requirement, because community service is only useful if the person does it with enthusiasm. Otherwise, it becomes a chore instead of a personal choice to do the right thing. Also if somebody does, for example, cleaning up the beach as a community service project, they will likely miss trash and litter. This would be due to a lack of enthusiasm, and the person did not really contribute to society. So it is a lose-lose situation to be in, the kids complain that it eats up their time and the job does not get done.

However, a student that CHOSE to perform community service, IS usually getting the job done, and done right. If the same student was REQUIRED to do community service, he would make mistakes and would get the job done, but NOT right. There is many solutions to getting students involved with community service. One, for example, is to give extra credit to those that CHOOSE to do community service. Another possible way is to promote using flyers in hope someone will look at it and say something like "Hey, this beach really is messy, and I can help". So there are other options than to REQUIRE community service hours.

Okay, to recap, no community service requirements, because to some kids it will be a "chore" and won't get done right. Community service is good, but if it is not required the job will get done right. There are other options than to require community service, such as promoting and extra credit. So you should listen so this letter so doing community service is a win-win situation.

Your Student,

STUDENT_NAME