RedWolf
Deity
Our Conservative provincial government in an effort to "reform" our public education system instituted a "Mandatory Volunteer Work" policy for students in order to graduated from high school (I've noticed however that it's now called "Mandatory Community Service" since Mandatory Volunteer work is an oxymoron).
I'm not sure how many hours students need for their diploma (as I gradated BEFORE this plan took effect) but I believe that it's somewhere in the 40 hour range.
This really was an ingenius plan because it allowed the government to show itself as "doing something" to solve the manufactured problems with public education. Also the people being affected most (being forced into indentured servitude) were all under age 18 and thus ineligible to vote. Adults ate this all up of course due to the widely held perception that high school students are mostly lazy, useless, and headed for prison. (The reality is that drug use and pregnancies are down while the numbers going to post secondary are up).
I've also found it interesting that most of the adults in favour of this plan have never "worked" a free hour in their life for ANY cause. I've always thought that mandatory community service was the type of thing that they assign to teenage drug dealers and car theives but I guess i'm wrong about that - ALL teenagers are now guilty by association.
Recently it has come to my attention that a large corporation in my town is having a children's Christmas party (for children of employees) and they're looking for employee volunteers to help out. They're ALSO recruiting local high school students to help set up and then clean up after the party - these kids that participate will be allowed to credit hours towards their "community service" requirements.
The spirit of this initiative was to force kids to participate in the community and help out with local charities etc. So why does a multi-million dollar corporation get to use high school kids as free labour when they otherwise might have to actually PAY high school kids for this work?
It's beginning to look like this whole deal was a kick back to the governments corporate cronies - after all the only thing better than paying someone minimum wage (which hasn't gone up in 8 years) is paying somebody NOTHING (and having them forced to be there if they'd like a high school diploma).
Anyway this thread is just to express my utter disgust and to maybe start a discussion about "mandatory community service".
I think I'm writing a letter to my MPP to find out if this is somehow violating the law.
I'm not sure how many hours students need for their diploma (as I gradated BEFORE this plan took effect) but I believe that it's somewhere in the 40 hour range.
This really was an ingenius plan because it allowed the government to show itself as "doing something" to solve the manufactured problems with public education. Also the people being affected most (being forced into indentured servitude) were all under age 18 and thus ineligible to vote. Adults ate this all up of course due to the widely held perception that high school students are mostly lazy, useless, and headed for prison. (The reality is that drug use and pregnancies are down while the numbers going to post secondary are up).
I've also found it interesting that most of the adults in favour of this plan have never "worked" a free hour in their life for ANY cause. I've always thought that mandatory community service was the type of thing that they assign to teenage drug dealers and car theives but I guess i'm wrong about that - ALL teenagers are now guilty by association.
Recently it has come to my attention that a large corporation in my town is having a children's Christmas party (for children of employees) and they're looking for employee volunteers to help out. They're ALSO recruiting local high school students to help set up and then clean up after the party - these kids that participate will be allowed to credit hours towards their "community service" requirements.
The spirit of this initiative was to force kids to participate in the community and help out with local charities etc. So why does a multi-million dollar corporation get to use high school kids as free labour when they otherwise might have to actually PAY high school kids for this work?
It's beginning to look like this whole deal was a kick back to the governments corporate cronies - after all the only thing better than paying someone minimum wage (which hasn't gone up in 8 years) is paying somebody NOTHING (and having them forced to be there if they'd like a high school diploma).
Anyway this thread is just to express my utter disgust and to maybe start a discussion about "mandatory community service".
I think I'm writing a letter to my MPP to find out if this is somehow violating the law.
