I’m sure the subject of mandating community service work for Windham High School students as a requirement for receiving a diploma came before the School Committee was brought up with the best of intentions. I have read that there is a study citing a correlation between success in school and involvement in public service work. So, at the risk of being viewed as a misanthropic crank, I’ll just say that I am against this proposal.

I think it is wonderful that people reach out to others in need. Volunteers are lifelines for many folks who would otherwise lead an isolated existence. When I help folks with shoveling or yard work or help raise money for a good cause, it makes me feel good. But something about compelling people to help others strikes me as wrong.

It is a sad fact that our sense of community has become fractured, a casualty of car culture, hectic work schedules and hypnotic appeal of technological amusements. Our connection with neighbors seems to be reduced to mutual waves through our car windows. We have lost any sense that our well-being has a connection with our neighbor’s well-being. We might need some of that sense back sooner than we’d like to think.

Pitching in to lend a hand, bottle drives and fund raising events for families in need all build a much-needed sense of community. These give us a sense that we are supported by the people right next to us, not some distant government, to get through tough times. But charity is not based on a sense of imposed obligation. Like a false apology, imposed public service has little or no compassion attached to it and even the recipient must sense this.

People often yearn for some nostalgic past rooted in images of the Eisenhower era. The “good old days,” according to TV Land. I am not sure that there actually was a time when universal goodwill was the norm. Chances are, most of us who did not live through the Great Depression or World War II have not experienced a high degree of neighborly involvement. And some may not want it.

Many people who bemoan our loss of community values are convinced that their tax money is going to crack smoking welfare recipients rather than their neighbors down the street. And for every person that stops to help a motorist with a flat tire there are 100 more who are in too much of a hurry to stop. Maybe this natural impulse to help is rarer than we would like to think.

So is holding a high school student’s diploma hostage until they complete 40 hours of picking up roadside trash the solution to our weakened sense of community? The fact is that most high school students have their hands full with homework, after school jobs and sports. Many already do some community service.

And why stop at forcing teenagers to do charity work? Are they being singled out because of their age? Or is it their relative lack of power in this situation? Why aren’t we imposing public service hours on senior citizens?

I would suggest that advocates of this involuntary volunteerism put their energy into organizing events in the community where people can actually meet their neighbors because forcing people to do community service work isn’t charity. It’s servitude.