FCPS Community Service Requirement for 6th Graders

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved putting down religious service on the FCPS form - I'm sure they hate that.

In MCPS, that generally won't count unless it serves a broader community. If the youth group works at a food pantry or the church hosts a Red Cross blood drive, that counts, but serving as an usher or acolyte or an aide in a religious education class would not.

That is ridiculous.

I think there's good reason for that. A lot of religious institutions have service requirements for their youth anyway - confirmation or bar/bat mitzvah, etc. No double-dipping.

So they pass judgement on HOW and WHERE my kids serves his/her mandatory volunteering? I'm glad I have my kid in private.

In some school districts service hours for political causes don't count, in other areas you can volunteer for the elderly as long as it isn't a family member, still in others you can volunteer with your church members for a food pantry but helping the Sunday School teacher or watching the babies in the nursery doesn't count.

For some programs, service hours must serve a specific cause of your choice (ex: feeding the hungry). Or a minimum GPA might be required.

Make sure that you understand the rules and regs or you may end up not getting credit for the hours that you serve. Make sure that you get your hours signed off on in a timely manner!

[Anonymous]

It really is not a big deal. My kids came away with a positive experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It really is not a big deal. My kids came away with a positive experience.

Mine have had an overall positive experience from their community service efforts and I think that they have learned a lot from them. But they have also put A LOT of work into those hours and often got them 2 hours at a time...

75 hours of community clean ups would mean working 2 hours at a time for 38 trash clean ups. Over the course of 6 years that would mean participating in approx 6 cleanups a year. Or one every other month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved putting down religious service on the FCPS form - I'm sure they hate that.

In MCPS, that generally won't count unless it serves a broader community. If the youth group works at a food pantry or the church hosts a Red Cross blood drive, that counts, but serving as an usher or acolyte or an aide in a religious education class would not.

That is ridiculous.

No it's not. Being an usher or aide or whatever role you take in your religious club is like being a bridesmaid at a wedding. It's not a community service. Good grief.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn't do this unless it's a very recent change.

Are you FCPS? We are being told it's a FCPS requirement.

My son is a junior this year and he had to do 15 hours of community service for his honors civics class in 8th grade.[/quote

Can these hours for 8th be completed in 7th?

[Anonymous]

No skin in this game (not FFX) but I don't like required or mandatory community service or service learning. Also don't like when parents give kids an allowance but then require them to donate part of it. I think they send all the wrong messages about why we should do service, help communities, and donate. THis just makes them show up somewhere and maybe do something. No consistency. The idea of kids getting "credit" for helping the janitor or the office staff is downright offensive (to the janitor and the office staff).

I think a great class assignment would be to have groups of kids plan and implement some event or the like that benefits the community -- all the way from finding out what the community needs, figuring out a budget, and implementing a plan. Could be repeated in different years and expanded when the kids get older and need more challenge. Much more meaningful than just being told where to go and what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn't do this unless it's a very recent change.

Are you FCPS? We are being told it's a FCPS requirement.

My son is a junior this year and he had to do 15 hours of community service for his honors civics class in 8th grade.[/quote

Can these hours for 8th be completed in 7th?

There was a project that went along with his hours so I do not know the answer to that question. To my knowledge the hours needed to be done while he was taking the class in 8th grade. I'm not sure if they still do it like that or not. But those were the rules when my son did it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No skin in this game (not FFX) but I don't like required or mandatory community service or service learning. Also don't like when parents give kids an allowance but then require them to donate part of it. I think they send all the wrong messages about why we should do service, help communities, and donate. THis just makes them show up somewhere and maybe do something. No consistency. The idea of kids getting "credit" for helping the janitor or the office staff is downright offensive (to the janitor and the office staff).

I think a great class assignment would be to have groups of kids plan and implement some event or the like that benefits the community -- all the way from finding out what the community needs, figuring out a budget, and implementing a plan. Could be repeated in different years and expanded when the kids get older and need more challenge. Much more meaningful than just being told where to go and what to do.

Some kids do their volunteering through groups. I know that my kids participated in canned food drives and clean ups through their outside activities that they were involved in.

After they do some group volunteering then they can start to look for ways to volunteer on an individual basis for a cause that means something to them. After that, maybe they'll organize a volunteer activity themselves.

There are lots of ways to volunteer. Both in and outside of school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if your child doesn't do it? Do they make your child repeat 6th grade?

Oh FFS. Nobody is repeating 6th grade. They don't get the certificate at the end of the year with their report card saying that they did service learning. That is the only 6th grade consequence.

[Anonymous]

Public education was initially instituted in order to produce the next generation of good citizens, so it makes sense why there would be a component that addresses values, citizenship in a broader community, manners, character, & civics. Whether school should do these things is debatable I suppose, but I would contend that very few things are truly "value neutral", so I don't think schools would be able to educate in the academic subjects without bringing in some lessons beyond academics.

I don't like the requirement either because it's inconvenient, but I don't find it objectionable on principle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no reward. It's like when they take strings or band. They have to record their practice hours. You're teaching them that one has to practice to get better at things. The teacher has no way of knowing if they practiced, so you sign off. Surely you're clarifying this to your kids.

Of course you teach them that normally one does service and good deeds without boasting or calling attention to it. This is just documented because the schools are trying to encourage service, because a lot of people do not do service or teach anything to their kids. Isn't this obvious?

But band and strings are not required parts of the FCPS curriculum. I see what OP is saying. My issue is that the county is requiring students to do something, but not providing the opportunity to do it. This is different than anything else the students are required to do to pass a class.

The problem with it is that most 11 year olds aren't desired as volunteers and can't really do anything useful. It's hard to find opportunities. Also, they aren't old enough to go around looking for opportunities or driving themselves there, so the parent has to do that too. My suggestion would be to look for community cleanup activities. Check the Nova parks pages online for things like stream monitoring. Those are good activities for kids and also fun and educational.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no reward. It's like when they take strings or band. They have to record their practice hours. You're teaching them that one has to practice to get better at things. The teacher has no way of knowing if they practiced, so you sign off. Surely you're clarifying this to your kids.

Of course you teach them that normally one does service and good deeds without boasting or calling attention to it. This is just documented because the schools are trying to encourage service, because a lot of people do not do service or teach anything to their kids. Isn't this obvious?

But band and strings are not required parts of the FCPS curriculum. I see what OP is saying. My issue is that the county is requiring students to do something, but not providing the opportunity to do it. This is different than anything else the students are required to do to pass a class.

The problem with it is that most 11 year olds aren't desired as volunteers and can't really do anything useful. It's hard to find opportunities. Also, they aren't old enough to go around looking for opportunities or driving themselves there, so the parent has to do that too. My suggestion would be to look for community cleanup activities. Check the Nova parks pages online for things like stream monitoring. Those are good activities for kids and also fun and educational.

5 hours for an 11-12 year old over a year is very minimal. 1 hour/quarter helping out at their school, and they are mostly there (DD did 3 hours at a food packing event at Dulles expo with a parent, and spent 2 hours volunteering at the school fun run. NBD).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no reward. It's like when they take strings or band. They have to record their practice hours. You're teaching them that one has to practice to get better at things. The teacher has no way of knowing if they practiced, so you sign off. Surely you're clarifying this to your kids.

Of course you teach them that normally one does service and good deeds without boasting or calling attention to it. This is just documented because the schools are trying to encourage service, because a lot of people do not do service or teach anything to their kids. Isn't this obvious?

But band and strings are not required parts of the FCPS curriculum. I see what OP is saying. My issue is that the county is requiring students to do something, but not providing the opportunity to do it. This is different than anything else the students are required to do to pass a class.

The problem with it is that most 11 year olds aren't desired as volunteers and can't really do anything useful. It's hard to find opportunities. Also, they aren't old enough to go around looking for opportunities or driving themselves there, so the parent has to do that too. My suggestion would be to look for community cleanup activities. Check the Nova parks pages online for things like stream monitoring. Those are good activities for kids and also fun and educational.

There are lots of things an 11 year old can do.

My kid at that age got some hours helping with a teacher training at his school. He directed people to the bathrooms, handed out papers, and set up the tables with the box lunches. He got some hours for walking dogs for a local rescue, and some for working at the polls on election day handing out "I voted stickers". He got some for working at the soup kitchen with his Grandmother, rolling silverware into napkins, and filling plates. He had friends who did the community clean ups, shelved books in the school library, and helped at a school fair.

Was he as useful as an adult at any of these things? No, probably not. But he learned about the community, and about following through on a commitment, and next time he goes he'll be more useful.

A parent doesn't have to drive if that doesn't work for them. There are plenty of opportunities at the school themselves. A student can help out at lunch or stay after school and ride the late bus. 5 hours would be 30 minutes of shelving books one lunch period a month. If your student doesn't want to do that, most elementary schools have some weekend events that need help too, and many people live within walking distance of an elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's no reward. It's like when they take strings or band. They have to record their practice hours. You're teaching them that one has to practice to get better at things. The teacher has no way of knowing if they practiced, so you sign off. Surely you're clarifying this to your kids.

Of course you teach them that normally one does service and good deeds without boasting or calling attention to it. This is just documented because the schools are trying to encourage service, because a lot of people do not do service or teach anything to their kids. Isn't this obvious?

But band and strings are not required parts of the FCPS curriculum. I see what OP is saying. My issue is that the county is requiring students to do something, but not providing the opportunity to do it. This is different than anything else the students are required to do to pass a class.

The problem with it is that most 11 year olds aren't desired as volunteers and can't really do anything useful. It's hard to find opportunities. Also, they aren't old enough to go around looking for opportunities or driving themselves there, so the parent has to do that too. My suggestion would be to look for community cleanup activities. Check the Nova parks pages online for things like stream monitoring. Those are good activities for kids and also fun and educational.

5 hours for an 11-12 year old over a year is very minimal. 1 hour/quarter helping out at their school, and they are mostly there (DD did 3 hours at a food packing event at Dulles expo with a parent, and spent 2 hours volunteering at the school fun run. NBD).

The really ironic part is when the school doesn't accept volunteers that age. Mine doesn't. I ran an event and needed volunteers badly, but the principal said I could not use 6th graders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school doesn't do this unless it's a very recent change.

Our two elementaries do not either, unless it is new.

I would be very put off by it too OP and my kids volunteer and do other things that would fulfill the requirement.

It would irritate me in the same way mandatory reading logs irritate me (my kids read for pleasure).

I don't look at service requirements like reading logs. They are, or can be, requirements, part of the required curriculum. Many high schools require service hours. Along with civics classes, service requirements should be a requirement to get a diploma, as part of learning to be a good citizen.

I think parents should teach values as they see fit. Not schools.

I agree. A public service requirement is stupid. Stick to the basics.