Your sitting in class, your teacher is droning on and on about plant cells, and then he gets an email. It reads: "Please read this email aloud to your students. Dear students; as your principal I have noticed a lack of participation this past semester in after school activities. Because of this, starting on Monday all students will be required to participate in at least one extracurricular activity. Thank you all for your cooperation. Sincerely, Generic_Name, Principal, Generic_School." A murmur falls among the students, after a short while it settles but it is made very clear the students dont agree with this decision.

I'm one of those students. Students should not be forced to participate in a extracurricular activity. Students should have free choice of what they do with their free time not the school. Forcing students to participate in extracurricular activity is not a good idea because it can cause students to lose their time at home with family or just their own time and it may lead to issues with getting homework done because they don't have enough time.

Students should not be forced to participate in extracurricular activity because it takes away from their home/ free time. Lets say your in tenth grade and you have a big research paper due next week, your halfway done with it and you should be finished in two days, which leaves you plenty of extra time in between and after to complete your other homework or just have some time to yourself. But then your teacher reads you that email, now your unwillingly playing basketball and that extra time you had is now gone. Basketball takes place three times a week. Sure you'll still get your homework done but now you have no time for yourself. Or maybe it affects your sleeping patterns. Just because your homework is still getting done on time doesn't mean your getting done on time. What used to be you asleep by 10:30 has now turned into you asleep by midnight with no time for yourself. Maybe it means you have to skip your nightly family dinner because your activity takes place during then, or your just to loaded with homework. Either way its not the right of the school to take away your home time they already take away a portion of it with all the homework you get. Taking students "me" time isn't right, it can lead to a unhealthy relationship with your family or cause you to lose sleep.

I touched on the other side of this point in that last paragraph, but what about homework? Let's assume that the principle decides he doesn't care about giving students me time, fine I can't stop him from feeling that way but there is one thing he didn't count on, grades dropping. By forcing students to participate in extracurricular activities you are taking away their "me" time which for some means their homework time. Students may not have enough time now to finish their homework or they may prioritize sleep and "me" time over it. It may even be used as an act of protest. If I was a student at Generic_School I would get a protest going, and get as many students to stop doing their homework and trying in school. Sure at first it would just drop our grades but if enough students did it then the school average would drop and then the school would have a problem. You shouldn't force students to participate in extracurricular's it may affect their grades or their care to succeed.

But some may say "extracurricular's build character and help make a well rounded student." But thats not true at all. It takes away a students right to choose. It takes away their character not build it. By forcing a student to do an extracurricular your taking away a part of that student, a part that made that student that student. His or her independence, his or her freedom, has been stolen, and that isn't the schools choice.

Students should be at their own will in what they choose to do after school, especially since their already required to do homework.

Students should not be required to participate in extracurricular activities. It can cause them to lose time to themselves or their family at home and it could lead to them not completing their homework and their grades being affected. Why should a school be allowed to play "in loco parentis". "In loco parentis" is an old Latin phrase that means "in the place of a parent". So why should the school be able to play in the place of a parent. If a parent decides that they want their student to do an extracurricular thats the parent's decision. Students should not have to participate in a extracurricular activity.