This morning, my radio greeted me with a sound bite from a speech of President Clinton. To quote it roughly he said, "Starting today I want a new definition of a good citizen taught in every school in America; a good citizen is one who obeys the law, goes to school or to work and one that is involved in community service."
The news bit focused my attention on several issues in education that are troubling. First, that we have a president that would like to be able to dictate what goes on in every school. Clinton has said that the time for local control of schools is past. Second, that we live in a society where the role of a full-time mother, like myself, is not valued. And finally, the idea that "service" should become part of the curriculum of schools.On April 14, the Deseret News ran an article titled, "Add `service' to 'readin', writin' and 'rithmetic'," which said that there is a major push by the National Education Association, Department of Education and other educational organizations to have service become part of the curriculum.
Anyone familiar with education in totalitarian regimes will be uncomfortable with this concept. There, schoolchildren have been used for such "community service projects" as cleaning sewers and gathering human waste for fertilizer.
Community service is normally understood to be volunteer service. Of course this is a praiseworthy activity. But if it becomes a requirement of education, it is no longer voluntary. It ceases to be service but is servitude.
Volunteer service not only helps those who are served but helps the giver to develop unselfishness. Mandatory service cannot do this. The development of a good character can only take place where the individual has the freedom to choose. Schools must be free to focus on teaching academics. As test scores in essential skills such as reading and math continue to fall (see Utah County Journal April 27), it is hard to justify diverting school efforts into forcing "volunteer service."
In a free society a good citizen, in addition to obeying the law, is one who takes the effort to acquaint himself with what is happening in society, can think for himself and decide what needs to be done and then uses his own time, resources, and influence to make the community better.
Ada Dittli
Springville