An op-ed piece in the Baltimore Sun delves into the subject of mandatory service abroad for all U.S. college students. Service, as opposed to semester abroad is a fantastic idea, for three reasons:
- it would give students a better understanding of the world's cultural differences;
- it would establish meaningful operations that actually help people in need;
- it would promote one of the best reasons to love our country, a trait of the United States that the world rarely pays attention to: altruism.
From the article:
What if, in addition to touring museums and learning new languages, students did as Jan Eliasson, president of the U.N. General Assembly and foreign minister of Sweden, has suggested? He would like all American college students to spend a semester abroad not simply studying but conducting grass-roots service - staffing schools and clinics, improving water sanitation, developing environmentally sound agriculture and helping start local business ventures in the world's struggling nations.
3 comments:
This should not be mandatory, but instead, make the ability to go overseas easier to do and promote it better.
The last thing you want is to force some undergrad to go enhance the US's image when all they want to do is drink, do drugs, and occassionally attend class.
Those are exactly the types of people that need it the most. They need a good swift kick in the ass, see how the rest of the world lives, and why we're hated.
Booooooooooo....
When I went abroad I drank a lot and ...ummm... did other stuff. Class was actually fun and I went most of the time.
Public service is a good and valuable tool, and if people want to do that I applaud it. If not, its too bad, but that's how it is.
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