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Service has always been central to our proud tradition of self-government. Here’s how to keep it that way.
Volunteering has always been central to Americans’ proud tradition of self-government. Writing of the 1830s America he visited, the French political observer Alexis de Tocqueville celebrated the “art of associating.” Parent-organized library fundraisers, church-run soup kitchens and the local animal rescue: a Tocquevillian spirit informs all these efforts.
Volunteering consists of service to the community for no pay or status rewards. There are other benefits. Volunteers motivated by religion seek the satisfaction of knowing they were, in C.S. Lewis’s phrase, at their “post when the inspection came.” For teenagers, volunteering can impart “soft skills” such as making eye contact and being polite to someone who isn’t polite to you. For parents of teenagers, volunteering together can encourage family bonding.
Continue reading the entire piece here at Free Expression via Wall Street Journal
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Stephen Eide is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.