Question On ‘National Service’ And Social Capital?
New South Wales Young Labor has, according to media coverage, proposed mandating some form of national service for high school students. While the term ‘national service’ with its connotations of the Draft is being employed, the proposal is to make students undertake some form of community service – be it serving as a cadet or in ‘volunteering’ for a community organisation – as part of the requirements for completion of the NSW Higher School Certificate, for example.
The stated aim of the proposal is to create more “rounded” students, and thus members of society, but will mandating community service actually benefit social capital?
As an aside, Nine is running a poll to gauge support for the reintroduction of compulsory national service ...
The stated aim of the proposal is to create more “rounded” students, and thus members of society, but will mandating community service actually benefit social capital?
As an aside, Nine is running a poll to gauge support for the reintroduction of compulsory national service ...
posted by MH at 11:10 am
1 Comments:
Firstly:
I can see your point, though the obvious reply is that you are forcing them to do something good which may not be such a bad thing … (Not saying that I agree with the reply.)
Secondly:
Conspiratorially, it is part of their grand plan to ensure that the Defence Forces meet their recruitment totals …
Actually, I’m not really sure why they chose ‘national service’. Perhaps it is because they are, allegedly, modelling the policy on a similar one from Europe ... Perhaps it is because they want to maintain a distinction between voluntary ‘community service’ and mandatory ‘national service’... Perhaps the individual behind the policy really didn’t have their branding cap on that day …
Update:
The federal Australian Labor Party has stated that it supports voluntary community service though is not planning on adding the aforementioned policy to its education platform.
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