Mandatory public service would benefit country's college students

They call us the iGeneration. We spend our lives in the blue light glow of our televisions, computers, and iPods. We never get out into the so-called real world. We never meet with reality until it's too late.

They call us the Boomerang Generation. Our parents sent us off to college at the bright-eyed age of 18, and we return home in our mid-twenties bleary-eyed without a clue as to how to fend for ourselves.

They call us Generation Debt. We take five, six, even seven years to graduate. We change our majors once, twice, three times. When we finally decide, we are bogged down in tens of thousands of dollars of debt with no clue as to how to get out.

Some suggest financial reforms. Others propose college courses focusing on life skills. But an increasing minority is proposing another solution that forces our generation and others like us to actually hold our breath and take the plunge into the real world.

The idea is simple. Between high school and college, young adults everywhere would put education on hold for a year for mandatory public service. They could choose the venue - education, military, or social service - and spend one year living as a contributing member of society.

Aside from the obvious benefits to the nation as a whole in terms of increased national service, our generation stands to gain from what college administrators refer to as a "gap year", or a year between high school and college.

Students who take a year off before college to engage in service or enter the work force are ahead when they finally enter college, according to CNN. The first week of college isn't their first week living alone. Loans aren't their first foray into financial matters, and eating at the cafeteria isn't the first time they've had to turn to someone other than mom for dinner.

Harvard University even recommends the gap year to prospective students, according to CNN. The extra year helps cultivate more mature, independent, and focused students. Students then know who they are and what they want to do because they've had more time to think.

That translates into fewer changes of major that equals fewer years in college. A mandatory year of public service could raise the dismal 40 percent of students graduating in four years to a much more respectable figure.

Less debt means increased financial independence. With the average college student graduating with about $18,000 in debt according to the College Board, debt is a huge factor in a graduate's decision to return to live with mom and dad. Eliminating a fifth year can save students up to 25 percent.

With less debt, maybe some of the many adults currently living with their parents would be able to move out and finance their own home. Maybe they could even take care of their aging parents. How's that for a role-reversal?

Opponents to a mandatory service requirement suggest that it would violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees the free choice of employment. To safeguard these rights, young adults should be given their choice of service opportunities without being forced into the military or any specific service.

Many countries, such as Austria and Germany, mandate military or civilian service allowing some room for personal preference. In Germany, an individual must present a case for exemption from military service to be placed into civilian service, but the American policy could be different. Instead of being placed directly into the military, young adults could choose the path that suited their interests and career goals.

You think you want to spend your life working with the Hispanic population of New York? Try it out for a year. You dream of a life working in politics? Spend a year working in our nation's capital. The gap year doesn't have to be time off from life; it can be a year of preparation for the future.

Perhaps the strongest objections come from those that propose that a national service requirement is an unwieldy task, requiring intense supervision, financial investment, and high levels of organization.

It cannot be denied that it would take an immense effort to enact a mandatory service program, but doing the impossible has always been a part of the American character. We started our own form of government. We reinvent foreign policy. Why not reinvent how we serve our country? Wouldn't it be worth it?

Wouldn't it be worth the hard work to see our children spend a year figuring out what they want to do while serving their country at the same time? To see them graduate on time without racking up another year's worth of loans for us to help finance?

Wouldn't it be worth it to see them wave goodbye and move out on their own rather than back in with us? Wouldn't it be nice to raise Generation Independent?