"Volunteering for social causes should be made compulsory in schools". Express your views either for or against this statement. write an essay on the topic
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Answer:
The aim of going to school or any educational institute is to learn, learn about various subjects and topics ranging from science, history to languages like English, French etc. But the question is, why are we learning all this? Is it just to enhance our existing knowledge? Is it just so that one day we can work in the corporate environment at a top position? While there are many whose thoughts circulate around these ideas, but does it really serve the purpose of learning and education?
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“Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.”, quoted by Marian Wright Edelman, an American Activist, provides us with a different perspective and purpose of education other than the materialistic ones.
Using the knowledge gained through education we have the power to transform the society around us and hence there is a need to imbibe the importance of social welfare among the students right from the time when they are learning the syllabus, as that is the development phase of an individual, the seeds which we sow during that time will reap us the fruits in the future.
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To accomplish this, there must be a social outreach program not only in colleges but in schools too, where students can get the taste of real life, the problems in the society, the complications people are facing. Although it might be difficult for school students to go ahead and resolve these issues, at least they will be aware of the problems grappling the society. Creating awareness among the students must be the prime purpose of these social programs.
Education provided in schools and colleges is mostly theoretical knowledge with practicals hardly taking up any major part. Application of this knowledge is required for a thorough understanding of the subject. And applying the existing knowledge for the welfare of the society is the best way to acquire the understanding as well as becoming aware of social issues within our society.
At schools, we do have a subject called moral science, but how can we learn such a subject theoretically? We need to practice the values imbibed in a moral science class in our daily lives, that’s when those values will become deeply rooted within us. Similarly, social service must be done in such a way that the students have something to think upon when they reach home. They should feel connected to the problems in a way that they treat it as their own, and hence will aim to resolve those by using their current knowledge or at least finding out ways in which these problems can be tackled.
Sitting in an air conditioned classroom watching videos of problems of people and social service isn’t going to have a long term effect of the student. Students need to be introduced to the actual problems by showing them the reality, allowing them to communicate with the people facing difficulties, that’s when they will start becoming more empathetic towards others.
In this way social service will help in building a student’s character with compassion, ethics and loyalty as he will be aware of the problems faced by others.