I've been volunteering at a local food bank for two years, and I'm convinced that mandatory community service in high school would do more harm than good. The teens who show up because they have to are often resentful, and they end up making more work for the regular volunteers than they save. It's not that they're bad kids—it's that forced altruism breeds cynicism, not empathy. Would you rather have a generation that helps out of obligation or one that finds its own reasons to give?