Students are entitled to their own opinion. Restricting students and pushing them into things will not help them or the school. Students should have a choice of what they want to spend their own time doing, not their principle. They need to have that freedom or they will grow up relying on teachers and adults telling them what to do. Students need to be given the choice of joining in extracurricular activities instead of being forced into them.

All students have different types of interests, that may not line up with many others. Just because half of the school enjoys soccer, it does not mean that the everyone enjoys it to. Students enjoy doing activities that they find fun or intriguing. If they are forced into doing a specific activity they don't like, they will not try and will make it a miserable time for the others. Taking the students freedom of choice will not help them gain anything. Putting a student on the debate team will not make him enjoy debating, but may cause him to dislike it instead. If the students are given the choice of joining an extracurricular or not, more students would want to sign up. Being forced into doing things will not make students want to do it, but will cause the opposite.

Many kids with working parents have no way of leaving their school or getting there extra. The principal and the school will just suggest carpools but many students don't live near someone they know or can ask for a ride. School buses will not come out to a students house at 5pm every Wednesday for the student to go to the Math Olympiad meeting for one hour and then get another ride from the school buses back home. Many students take the bus for the exact reason of working parents, but if they don't have any way of getting there then students can get in trouble for things that are out of their hands. Students with available parents who can drive their kids can sign up for extra curricular activities. However, the students with no choice and no ride are different. Making the students do activities to boost the schools ratings and awards will only do harm to students. Freedom must be given to the students in events like this, because it is not under their control and would only make them more embarrassed.

Students get stressed out over just school itself. The students that may take longer to finish homework or projects may not have time to fit in sports clubs that they don't even like. Requiring students to take time out of their day to do activities they don't want to will only put more stress on them. They will have to spend extra time at school in an interest group they know nothing about, to go home and have to rush through homework and stay up late to finish that project they have due at the end of the week. Students could lose sleep and be more tired during the day, and even cause their mental health to decrease. When exams start and teachers begin to pile on the workload, students begin to struggle. When the principle then adds a new activity for them to do, leaving them less time to study and work, they can get stressed, start to believe things about themselves because they cannot finish the homework, and become sleep deprived from trying so hard. If that kind of mindset continues for too long, they will just stop trying overall. A students mental health should be important to the school and forcing them to do things that will decrease their mental health will make a bad school environment. The school should have their back, not pushing it into the student counsel.

A large of students already participating in out of school activities may not have the time for school activities. Students belonging to an indoor soccer club could have practice after school every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have football every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. These students may have learned the task of time management, but they most certainly have not learned how to be in two places at once. If no groups meet in a time where they do not have practice, then they cannot come. These clubs he is enrolled in out of school cost money and they already paid for the whole year. Schools cannot prevent you from joining in on activities they promoted you to do before they made the rule of joining an extracurricular. Students may be an excellent soccer payer and play for the best team out of their club, but not want to join the school team because a middle school soccer team will not get you recognized for a scholarship like a professional club will. Students choose to do different activities in and out of school for a reason. The students that have the right amount of time, are interested in those clubs, and will put in the amount of effort actually needed for the club will make the school environment better than the principal and teachers forcing kids into activities they don't have the time or effort to do.

In all schools, students should have freedom to do what they want. Students do not enjoy being talked into things nor do they like being forced into them. Schools do not know what may be going on in different students lives, mentally or physically. Leaving them the option to consider what would help them in their lives at that time, is important. Students always want more opportunities to improve, but these extracurricular activities may not be the type of opportunity they know will help them. They can always ask teachers and adults about the activities, but that does not mean they have to do it. Principles do not personally know all the students and have no way of knowing what is best for all of them. The students know themselves better than anyone else would, so only they can make the decision of what would be the best use of their time to help them improve as a person and a student. If students believe that school extracurricular activities would benefit them the most, then they can easily join. But it is not the same story for every student. Every student has a different life and a different mind.