Importance of kids being volunteers

We have a saying to the effect that service you do to others is the payment you make for your space in life. It is easy to understand, but not easy to put into practice. It was important to remind ourselves of this saying when we observed International Volunteer Day on Wednesday.

In the past three decades, volunteer activities and organizations have witnessed great progress. The total number of registered young volunteers was more than 30 million at the end of 2011, and it is estimated that the total number of volunteers may have reached more than 60 million nationwide. In Beijing alone, there are 1.7 million registered volunteers. The number of volunteers in the cultural sector in Beijing has reached 300,000, according to a meeting on Tuesday.

Promoting volunteer activities is of unique importance to the youth in this country, as it can be an antidote to the downside of the family planning policy, whereby parents and grandparents bestow too much attention and love on their "little emperors", making many of the youngsters too self-centered to know the joys of sharing and doing something for others. It is far too common for many senior high school graduates to be accompanied by their parents when they go to university, although they should be independent at the threshold of adulthood.