Students should not have to participate in an extra-curricular activity. It can cause a lot of problems with the student's schedules outside of school, it can counteract their parents schedules, and some students already have extra-curricular activities that aren't connected to the school. It's another unnecessary cause.

One reason I feel this way is because there are many people with busy schedules. They have programs they do after school and if not, they get time to spend with family and friends. Teachers do hand out homework as practice material for the things they learned that day. The majority of students who get homework, gets it done and turned in on time. But not only does it affect student's lives, it could affect the parents as well.

Parents are just as much affected as students would be with an additional extra-curricular added to their schedule. There are parents who are working in the morning, so the students get up, go to the bus, go to school, and then ride the bus home to wait on their parents. A lot of students whose parents don't get home until around 7 or 8 pm know how to make a lot of meals for themselves. If the school adds another mandatory extra-curricular activity to the mix, the students wouldn't get home until late because they can't drive. And the students who already have extra-curricular programs after school are going to have trouble getting there on time if they have to stay after school and do a mandatory activity. However, some seem to think they have the solution.

Some people say the simple solutions like, "Just carpool" or "school should come first." But if their teen knows a friend but they don't know that friend's parents, they aren't going to trust the friend's parents with their child. Moreover, trust them with dropping their kid off at the their home, when they are still at work. School should come first, but not for the parents. The parents already have jobs and are fully beyond school, unless they are taking online courses to get a degree. It's the students responsibilities to get homework done, to study for their tests and exams. So maybe, having a mandatory extra-curricular activity after school would be a bad idea.

Mandatory extra-curricular activities right after school can be stressful and can damage a schedule already set in place. It can place a lot of worry on the working parents, it can unbalance a student's life with so much to do, and it can really affect how students do in school. Sometimes it's just better to let good be good, and nothing else.