Volunteerism

Volunteerism


A few years ago, President Clinton called for hundreds of thousands of volunteers to teach children how to read because schools weren’t. One year later, President Clinton continued to call for mandatory “volunteer” service for all school students. The President went even further by saying it would be good for fourth and eighth graders to learn the “joy and duty” of service. President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have made similar statements.

None of our leaders explained how “public service” is morally uplifting to students. If few are getting around to teaching students how to read, what were the government and schools doing with the world’s largest expenditure on education?

Some defend mandatory service by saying: “If we can require English and math, why shouldn’t we require public service?” If the purpose of education is moral indoctrination, compulsion and punishment, this is a good point. If the purpose of education is to teach skills that help individuals to produce achieve and build their own lives the focus should be teaching students to read, think clearly and solve basic arithmetic problems.

The purpose for volunteerism is service for its own sake and not whether it helps the recipient. Why else mandate public service for nine year old fourth graders? What would nine year olds be required to do? Read to the elderly? Ooops! Can’t be that – these children can’t read, remember? Have nine year olds in the past succeeded where $5 trillion in government expense (War on Poverty) has failed? Are nine year olds expected to learn to live for others and surrender their lives and their values to the government at the earliest possible age? If they surrender the right to live for themselves, they will serve the purpose of those who want to exercise power over every detail of their lives.

Mandatory volunteerism forces Americans to serve those who do not produce, achieve, invent or create. We were liberated from that thinking when the Founding Fathers proclaimed the inalienable right of each individual to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If our presidents, secretaries and the education establishment continue to focus on their goal of teaching “every young American” the “joy and duty of service” - that they have no moral right to pursue their own happiness but a duty to pursue everyone else’s – our freedoms recede into history. Then it will make no difference if anyone can read or not.

Where has it been proven that service in slums and nursing homes is a moral ideal that will galvanize our youth, adding value and significance to their lives? The young are not motivated by the prospect of selfless service at a homeless shelter. They are motivated by budding careers in business, law, medicine and computer science. They need a vision of man the hero, the bold individual, who holds his own values, sets his own goals and pursues his own happiness. This inspiration is especially important to the poor, the handicap, and immigrants, for they face great obstacles to achieving personal success. An Oprah Winfrey who rises from poverty, succeeds by her own effort and becomes the wealthiest woman in America will offer more hope to our young than indentured servitude offered by President Clinton.

There is nothing wrong with an individual doing charity work, if it is not a sacrifice for him. Charity is not a moral ideal, nor does human life depend on it. Achievement is the moral ideal because man’s life does depend on it.

The sight of Michael Jordan soaring through the air, winning championships, earning millions, then flashing his brilliant smile – his extraordinary success – has inspired far more young people to strive for their own dreams. Certainly far more than an army of social workers could ever think possible. As Ayn Rand wrote in “Atlas Shrugged,” “The sight of an achievement is the greatest gift that a human being could offer others.”