If it’s required, then it isn’t volunteering.
I get volunteered for shit at work all the time.
Yes and no. For kids doing it, it’s more “community service” but for this kid, he keeps going so it turns into a love of volunteering.
The word “volunteer” is literally defined as a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task.
If it’s required, then it is not, by definition, “freely given“, and, thus, not volunteering.
This isn’t an argument of degrees. It is literally not volunteering according to the definition of the word volunteering.
What this article describes his literal slavery.
And if this kid enjoys himself around the cat, that’s because cats are awesome, not because he was forced to labor without compensation.
But he keeps going. Freely. So it is volunteering now. The first 15 hours was not volunteering by definition, but it is afterwards.
I pretty clearly addressed this already.
If you are required to go, it is not volunteering.
And this kid doesn’t continue because he enjoyed slavery. It’s because he wanted to be around cats again, and then discovered that, when not being forced into slavery, he actually enjoys giving his time freely. Not because he enjoyed slavery.
Your entire assertion is ridiculous
Talk about absolutism. You didn’t address this, and you didn’t read my comment. I’m done.
Some words are binary: a thing either is or is not X. A word like “volunteer” does not have degrees. It either is is not volunteering. It either does or does not match the definition.
There are plenty of other words in the English language which can apply to a wide variety of possible situations and circumstances or subjects, but we’re not talking about one of those words.
And you’re really not helping your argument by making me correct you, once again, on your vocabulary.
Bro, the reason the school calls them “volunteer hours” is because the places that need help are asking for volunteers. Even though it’s mandatory for students, these are hours at a volunteering opportunity. Interacting with the community is part of growing up, and part of their education. It’s not slavery.
By this logic isn’t school just slavery?
you aren’t strictly forced to go to school, it’s your parents who will suffer the consequences for you not going, but yes forcing kids to go to school when they clearly don’t want to is an extremely shitty thing and leads to lots of issues.
I have heard this very intelligently argued more than once over the last 30 years. I’m not gonna get into the arguments, because they are all actually kind of different and all very complicated.
Suffice it to say, I don’t really think so. Because I don’t, personally, view school as “work” or “labor”. Nobody would get paid to go to school as an occupation— other than (post)doctoral students, I suppose. That’s not really the same thing, working off of grants.
And, in a huge portion of cases, people actually pay a premium to go to school.
But if you’re trying to ask if I think any compulsory activity for children, or anyone else, is tantamount about slavery, no I don’t. Obviously, it’s a very nuanced subject.
Thanks for the response, I appreciate it.
They are using volunteer to imply that the work cannot be payed
do you think homework is slavery too?
Maybe if you did your homework, you know the meaning of the word “slave”
maybe if you did yours you’d understand that “and” means both conditions need to be fulfilled for a statement to be true. so how is that child considered a property of anyone in this situation?
it’s to teach children (and their parents) how to volunteer and where, by assigning public service to the kids. it’s not called public service because volunteering is what it will be once the teaching is done, it’s avoiding confusion of teaching something that is called another word after you finish school
i think you might be overreacting a little bit
If you can’t teach these lessons without forced to child labor/slavery, then you’re a shitty teacher and a shitty parent to think that slavery is an acceptable path for teaching a child public service.
There are better ways to do this than child slavery.
genuinely, how old are you?
if your child doesn’t want to brush their teeth, are you going to insist that their personal freedom is the most important thing and let their dental hygiene suffer? that forcing them to brush their teeth is somehow slavery? (as small as it is, it is work after all)
it’s 15h a semester, a kid can do ~1h of helping out around the neighbourhood a week and pass easily. oh no! a child is being made to help people for an hour a week! learning the benefits of helping and gaining experience doing small tasks! literally slavery!
you gotta touch some grass buddy, smell the flowers, talk with parents, talk with teachers, relax
You’re comparing apples and oranges to argue in favor of child slavery.
How old are you?
Oh, and if I continue to stand up against child slavery, even after getting dog piled by a bunch of people who, apparently, really love child slavery, then so be it.
And it’s hardly my fault that you can’t figure out a better way than child slavery to teach children the value of public service.
then go ask an ethics board of your nearby university their opinion, see how many people actually agree with your overtly exaggerated understanding of “child slavery”. because holy shit man, i’m a leftist, so far left i’m an anarchist, i’m all for freedom and consent, and even by my standards what you’re saying is just– wild
What else would you call forced labour with no paycheck?
My dude it’s typically called service learning and your pessimistic and overly pedantic take on it isn’t great.
The notion of these activities is to get kids out in the world to see how it works and interact with its systems AND possibly have them help out and learn about things.
When I was in school I did my service learning with a nature conservancy near me, it was fun and was treated like a school assignment.
They’re not slaves and your comparison is wild for anyone living in any form of servitude.
I said this before, and I’ll say it again: if you can’t figure out a way to teach your children the value of public service by any other means than child slavery, then you’re a shitty teacher and a shitty parent.
There’s a plethora of other ways to teach these lessons that don’t include child slavery.
You’re alone on this hill and I hope whatever traumas of your past have you this worked up don’t keep clawing you down.
This is a pretty uninformed and awful take my dude, enjoy your little cesspool.
Personal attack instead of a rational argument. Classy.
Take solace in knowing everyone else is wrong.
Yeah hated this shit in school. What they don’t tell you is when you unleash all the kids in the highschools at the same fucking time to get 40 hours of volunteer hours during the same couple months the opportunities for volunteering get severely limited. Worse if you’re in a smaller city/town
School should provide the opportunities if needed yo alleviate demand
There’s a term for that, it’s called being voluntold to do something.
Yeah, at first I thought this would be a case of [email protected]. Like, good news everyone, this kid actually enjoys his child labor.
But I guess, at just 15 hours per semester and if it is relatively fun activities like this, then I can see that it’s actually educational and might prevent the dissociation that students often experience.
Then it should be called community service or something.
Need to look up the word “volunteer”. nothing you described meets that definition.
I’m shocked by the illiteracy of people in this thread. Words have specific meanings, and those meanings don’t just change when you realize that you’ve been advocating for child slavery. Child slavery doesn’t magically become OK just because admitting you’re wrong makes you feel bad.
I didn’t say that it meets the definition of “volunteer”.
No, you’re arguing in favor of child slavery.
You know, 150 years ago, politicians argued that slavery was good for Black people. That caught them the meaning of work, of service. The entire concept is repulsive.
You’re advocating for child slavery. And it’s disgusting. Shame on you.
I’m not. I really don’t know how you’re reading that into my comment, where the first half literally expresses my worry about this being child labor. I’m not going to argue for a position I don’t hold.
Yet, you are here arguing to defend child’s slavery.
True, but it’s still work that’s usually volunteering work. So it’s probably a good idea to call it volunteering so the kids associate it with that. It’s to give kids a taste of what kind of work volunteers do so they might do it voluntarily in the future (like the kid in this post).
Personally I also didn’t really mind it in school. I had to spend a few days at a thrift store and had lots of fun. They installed Ubuntu on their laptops, which was my first contact with Linux. I got to help customers with that. And one time we were moving a couch and accidentally hit a stand that wasn’t attached properly. It fell over and almost hit a customer lol.
They only call it volunteering because they don’t want to pay for the work.
Volunteering should be … voluntary
Had this at my school, if it is fun you don’t get any of this thing we called it social hours, it is basically just a way to get kids to work.
I agree, but I still think they should call it that. For some kids, it’ll build a passion for volunteer work and then they will choose to do it. If you call it something else then that might not happen as often.
Calm down Che Guevara. Better things to be upset about than getting kids involved in their local communities.
Just because there are other things doesn’t mean we can’t be upset about “mandatory volunteering” which is an oxymoron.
I mean, just look at you. Getting upset about some opinion online. You sure you aren’t the Che Guevara?
Awe dude
to be upset about than getting kids involved in their local communities.
Nobody made this claim. Are you replying to the correct comment?
I’m replying to the right one.
Then you’re hallucinating, because I never said anything like what you’re accusing me of. Not even close.
Then again, most people replying to my comment have severe deficiencies in both vocabulary and reading comprehension, so this doesn’t surprise me.
Best of luck with that!
Yep. Definitely the correct one.
This is a great idea
how do we volunteer in this role?
Call your local shelter.
I actually just checked one now, only option is gardening volunteer. But maybe I should keep looking.
If you think you’re too good to get your hands dirty planting new-cat seeds, and you just want to enjoy them once they leave the vine, you’ve really got some thinking to do.
No they ask for gardening experience. This is a serious gardening volunteering job with designing flower beds and what not. It is not digging dirt and throwing seeds around randomly. Also it is for a dog shelter…
I was just fooling around.
That’s so fucking cute
Cats have a spell over us I think
A spell called toxoplasmosis.
Hooray for cat loving mind control worms! 🥳
As if the little buggers need it.
I’m already under their spell, if I caught toxoplasmosis, I wonder how much more fanatic I could get. I’ve been a big cat fan for several decades and I’m toxo negative so far - apparently it’s easier to get by working in the garden. I should probably get my hands dirty more often.
Nuzzling kitties is the best!
That’s how they get you.
Kid looks really good with the kitties!
Or rather. The kitties looks really good with him, heh.
