Requiring Volunteerism

* Re “School Will Require Students to Volunteer,” Feb. 7.

Your headline moves me to wonder if George Orwell is now “ghosting” your headlines.

“Requiring” volunteerism is an oxymoron if there ever was one. Coercing someone to “volunteer” means that he or she is not volunteering.

Besides forced volunteerism, this program appears to violate long-cherished strictures on child labor and involuntary servitude. These children are being forced to labor without pay. The only reasonable description of this is child slavery.

I am moved to wonder: Among the “93 nonprofit organizations . . . including . . . environmental groups and homeless organizations,” are there any non-left-wing ones? May a student, for example, “volunteer” to support the National Rifle Assn., Operation Rescue, anti-illegal-immigration groups? Or is credit granted only for politically correct service?

Were I a parent of a child at Montclair College Preparatory School, my child would either be exempted from this effort at Maoist indoctrination, or a lawsuit would be filed that would make those who dreamed up the program rue the day.

JAMES F. GLASS

Chatsworth