Amy Charters' Second Anti-servitude Speech

March 9, 1998

In regard to the outrageous proposal of mandatory community service, perhaps this school board needs a short lesson in remedial English. The word mandatory, in this case, means a condition that constrains a person by legal force. And this condition is community service--a legal obligation forcing students to serve and obey anyone whom this school board deems to be "needy".

Parents would be put in a situation where they would have to trust this school board's judgment not only with regard to their children's education, but now with commanding their children to perform a forced action that has nothing to do with educating them.

What then would this forced action teach a teenager? It would teach that it is proper to put other's wishes and needs above their own. Is this an idea that parent s would want their children to be taught? That their teenagers are slaves to the community at large which means anyone that comes along claiming his need?

A teenager is desperately trying to sort out what it is he wants for the next 60 years of his life, dealing with pressure from other kids and his parents. A teacher must then tell him to stop planning his future, drop everything important to his life, and serve needy strangers by perhaps serving soup at a homeless shelter, or painting over graffiti on a filthy highway. Is this what parents really want their children to do in school?

How is it that this proposal has come this far in this school district? I am sure that many parents believe that community service is an expression of good will towards others--but obviously these parents have evaded the fact that this program is mandatory--it is forced. And any parent who supports this injustice would then be an accomplice to forcing other parents to accept their choice.

If parents who support mandatory community service truly wish to involve their children in volunteerism, they should enforce it outside of school. It is obvious that this proposal is immoral in that it will harm the students who want to focus on their future. This slavery will keep the best students from focusing on their own life and how to live it successfully.

I am speaking here tonight because I value freedom in America . I value making my own choices and decisions and being responsible for their consequences. I could not live with myself if I did not fight for the right of everyone to make their own choices, because this is what insures my own freedom and the freedom of everyone that I care about. This proposal represents the idea that your individual choices are worth nothing, and because of this, others--meaning the school board and other parents--need to make those choices for you. 

I urge all of you who care about their children's and their own personal freedom --don't let this outrage go on.