extracurricular activity

1. 2. Framework- As of last round it is now possibly to more clearly assign burdens in this debate. That said Pro's burden is to show that all public and private schools K-12 in the US should do away with their extracurricular activities. If I can show even one reason not to do away with even one extracurricular activity than the vote should go to the Con. For clarity I will first address Pro's opening remarks and then will provide a few of my own. 3. Refutations- By my opponent's own admission American excels in the fields of music and sports. In these two fields alone Con shows that the United States benefits by roughly $30.3 Billion dollars annually. Employment in the music industry includes performers, managers, producers, accountants, engineers, booking agents and even education development[3]. Doing anything to prohibit students from pursuing interests in these fields could undeniably harm employment in these industries. Warner Media even teams up with college students to assist in production of their media and pays them to listen to music and help figure out what people enjoy hearing. [3] . http://us.music-jobs.com... [4] . http://www.wmg.com... The impact here is that an exposure to these interests at a young age encourages and feeds this interest. Cutting these programs could potentially put the jobs of millions of people in jeopardy. As for sports the same arguments apply, if not more so. Hundreds, if not thousands of college students are put through their schooling because of scholarships to play for university athletic teams. Many of these students would not be able to afford their education if not for the scholarships they received to play on these teams. These students go on to a plethora of careers which help to advance science, medicine and technology in the United States. In fact, Dr. Neil Tyson was the captain of his high school wrestling team as well as editor in chief of his school's news paper[5]. [5] . http://en.wikipedia.org... Finally, dealing opponent's final three arguments it is clear that there is no correlation between involvement in extracurricular activities and poor academic achievement, if anything extracurricular involvement benefits academic achievement (which I will warrant further with in my constructive). The Noble Laureates and Field Medalist arguments are also nonsequitar to my opponent's initial line of logic, there isn't a link between not being recognized for an award an being involved in extracurricular activities; and Aside from that, six of the 2012 Nobel Laurettes actually are from the from the U. S. ; Alvin E. Roth, Lloyd Shapley, David J. Wineland, Brian Kobilka and Robertkowitz. 4. Constructive- The University Interscholastic League (hereafter UIL) in Texas lead the way for state-sponsored academic competition,[6] sponsoring 22 high-school level academic events as well as 18 different junior high and elementary level contests. The activities include, among others: Accounting, Literary Criticism, Science, LD debate and Policy debate. This isn't even paying mind to the music and athletic competitions that UIL hosts. [6] . http://www.uiltexas.org... This competition gives public-school students all across the state of Texas the opportunity compete in activities they otherwise couldn't, and the benefit is glaringly obvious; as a former UIL competitor myself I can contest that involvement in these activities motivated me to succeed in school as I practiced for my number sense and debate competitions. We also see organizations such as the National Forensics League[7] churning out intelligent and qualified students who through their competitions have learned valuable research and people skills[8]. [7] . https://www.nationalforensicleague.org... [8] . https://www.nationalforensicleague.org... Beyond those two (which I only mention first as I myself had the privilege of being involved in them) we see that there is a plethora of evidence suggesting that participation in just about any extracurricular activity helps students to succeed[9]. Involvement in these activities give students focus on their main course work as it allows them to practically apply what they're learning in the classroom. It even encourages students who otherwise wouldn't concentrate on their studies by giving them incentive to work harder; when they have something to look forward to they take care of their schoolwork lest they risk disqualification. [9] . http://dc.cod.edu... 5. Conclusion- I could go on forever, but I believe I've proven my point.