The head of Columbia University said that thousands of students were gathered outside the event to show their support for a day of service, and thousands volunteer each year. The school’s core curriculum, he said, is based in part on the idea of citizenship in a democratic society. He pointed out that the School of Engineering has a mandatory service requirement, and that many prospective engineers work to improve the technology available in the public schools. Mandatory volunteering?
The university president obviously agrees with Aristotle that virtue is a habit that can be ingrained in the young by practice. But it risks a lack of sincerity. The response of one person who heard what I would be doing tonight was that it sounds like more padding the college application, or perhaps the job application.
Moreover, what is the greatest value of community service to those who do it? You get to meet and be with the other people who do it, which are the kind and responsible people, and I tell my daughters those are the kinds of people you want to be with. It’s OK to be friends with those who are kind and not responsible, as long as they rely on you and not the other way around. And it’s OK to have people who are responsible but not kind as colleagues, as long as you watch your back. But if you want to be really close to someone, better that they are both kind and responsible. Mandatory service could dilute that social signal. Then again, if it were mandatory, perhaps the women wouldn’t outnumber the men three to one, increasing the daughters’ odds.
Live blogging on a laptop, which I don’t normally use, is giving me carpal tunnel. I’ll post my reaction to the candidates over the next few days.