Does choir ruin the voice?

I'm thinking of joining the school choir, but I've heard that it damages the voice. Is this true?

Only if your chior director is a moron, puts you in the wrong section, and regularly tries to get you to strain your voice rather than by teaching you how to expand your range in healthy ways.

but in 99.99% of the cases, it will do your voice GOOD!

I have been singing solo and in choirs for 55 years. First time I ever heard of that one.
***

i doubt it, unless you sing for 8 hours a day for the rest of your life. i was in the school choir in high school and i never had a problem with my voice. so don't worry, you'll be fine. besides, if joining the school choir really damages your voice, i wonder why so many people joined it.

You need to sing with the right technique and make sure you don't make any strains to your voice. NEVER strain your voice. Don't scream. You shouldn't be feeling any stress or strain while your singing. And don't sing too much. You need to rest your voice periodically.

Absolutely NOT true!! No matter if you were singing solo or in small vocal ensembles or choirs, the way you use your voice should always remain almost the same -only some changes on the timbre for example are usually required when singing solo. In fact, singing in a choir trains your musical skills very well, as there you have to listen to the harmonics in order to get it right!!

Excuse me? This is plain nonsense. You can damage your voice in any way but definitely not by singing in a choir.
Only if you sing to much, to loud, to high, strain to much etc. can you damage your voice at any time, in any place.
By all means, join the choir, you will learn a lot in it.

Absolutely not.

It will depend to the choir you are joining, to your choirmaster's ideas about chorale singing and to your discipline as a singer but before entering that choir, assure your self first. Choose between chorale singing and solo singing.

I will play devil's advocate here. there are two good reasons to back up this thought.
Many chorus directors don't know much about the actual factual workings of the human voice. They have learned piano and conducting in their studies, and perhaps have had a brief excursion in outdated vocal mythology.( to those of you who have finished your course of study dealing directly with the human voice, my apologies, but my high school chorus director was a failed clarinetist who went into teaching to earn aliving, not because he cared about voices.) They require dynamics, phrasing, and other achievements which they are not able to explain to their students. Hence, the volume of misinformation grows. I've seen too many of those answers posted here by other kids in choruses, and am appalled at the lack of easily obtainable knowledge that is propagated.
the other reason not to join chorus is for the beginning soloist who has not yet settled into his/her technique. Surrounded by other voices, o ne quickly loses the sense of identity that has begun to form in private lessons, and bad habits can creep in. Forcing the voice to hear oneself; holding back to match a pale, anonymous sound; switching back to previous bad habits, etc.
However, if the chorus director is truly knowlegable, and treats the voices in his/her care responsibly, go ahead and join up. singing with a group of people can be a truly rewarding activity, and the sense of combined accomplishment after a concert or presentation is further encouragement to keep on progressing.
Hard and fast rule of singing #1: if it causes physical discomfort, you're going about it the wrong way. Stop and figure out what and why. fix it before you continue.

Choir itself does not ruin the voice, poor vocal technique does. If the choir director puts you in the correct section and you do not strain your voice, only sing healthily you should be fine. Remember proper breathing, no tension in the throat, a high soft palette etc. when singing. If your director knows the mechanics of the voice and you do not abuse your ability there should be no harm done.