Being a teenager can be one of the best times of your life. As a teenager, I myself have participated in many sports activities and extracurricular activities in my free time. Although I am lucky enough to have experienced being in a club and on a sports team, other students may not have that opportunity.

I believe that schools should require extracurricular activities, one of the reasons being kids social skills. Being put into different clubs or sports teams can help teens make new friends and provide a larger circle of students they can interact with on a daily basis. Being in those activities can provide new experiences those kids never thought to try. This can spark new interests and lead to students doing bigger and better things in their lives, and also help them with choosing a career path.

This generation of teenagers has become addicted to technology and social media. Kids ranging from high school all the way down to preschool use technology on a daily basis. If schools require students to participate in an extracurricular activity, It will pull students away from social media and lead to a more productive way in them spending their time. Too much screen time can take a toll on young people's mental health and I believe that in having required activities, kids of all ages can focus on sports rather than their social media status.

If school were to make extracurricular activities required, they would probably have to provide them for free. Schools can't force the parents to pay for extra activities, nor can some parents afford to pay for those activities. If the school covered the cost of everything the school would get more respect, because it would be showing they didn't just care about grades and they care about your mental health as well. If extracurricular were required it would be good for the school to get to fill up their clubs. For example, they could have more students in the yearbook club, which would improve the quality of the work they put into the yearbook.

In the end I believe that having required extracurricular activities would really make the school environment a happy and healthier place for students, teachers, and parents.