There are millions of schools across America. Many schools offer extracurricular activities after, before, and during school. I believe that extracurricular activities are a great way to become more social and outgoing within your community, but I don't think it should be forced upon either. Yes, you may have those kids who would love to socialize more, but you also need to look at the bigger picture. Millions of children get bullied everyday for anything, clothes, appearance, religion, etc. I have come to terms with the fact that you can't change people, but you can prevent unspeakable situations from happening. I disagree with forcing students to participate in extracurricular activities because they may get over worked, have a higher chance of bullying, and lose personal time.

From a students perspective, another extracurricular activity may be enjoying, others may not agree. As stated, three of these possible activities are student council, sports, and working on the yearbook. The possibility of getting over worked is very high. If a child thought they could be on the student council, but realized it was to much for them, what would happen? Could they just leave the council or would they have to go through with it? What if they didn't say anything at all because they we're too embarrassed? Children already have to go with so much already believe it or not. Kids already have homework, projects, tests, etc. Then to add another chip on their shoulder, kids could become very stressed with their activity.

Bullying has been very big problem these past couple of years. Lots of it has to do with social media. Still, many kids get bullied in school. Based on how they look, how they dress, what they bring to eat, religion, and more. That could happen so much easier when you add another extracurricular activity. For example, lets say a student chose to do sports, and this student wears a hijab as part of her religion. Everyday she's told to take it off or is called slurs by other classmates in her activity class that she has never met before. It's the same people every day, she just shrugs it off. She then finally says something to a teacher. They finally get suspended for how many days, and are kicked out of the sport class. Everything is fine now, right? Wrong, she will always remember what they said to her, and it could've been prevented if they didn't force an extra class.

Many kids have their own out of school activities. A child may get caught up in both of their activities. For example, lets say that a student has to go to school for their activity, but they also have soccer practice. If they go to practice then they miss the in school activity, and if they go to school then they miss their practice. Both are very important to the student, but they need to choose. They shouldn't have to choose, and then be stressed about the other decision.

Adding another extracurricular activity may make a student over worked, have a higher chance of bullying, and lose personal time. I think that if you want to do an extracurricular activity you can, and if you don't want to you dont have to. If you did do another activity what would the end goal be for that. Would it be to make kids social? Would it make kids try and trust each other? Maybe, forcing children to communicate with one another isn't the best choice?