You have so much to do! You have a pile of homework, youth group, errands, and, on top of that, you have to meet with a club that you don't want to be in. If you force someone to do things that they don't want to do, there can be a lot of negative effects. As a result, I don't think that participating in an extracurricular should be required because people who are forced to join something will probably not participate well, could get very stressed and overwhelmed with the extra load, and people who are not already in a club have multiple reasons to not join.

First off, if you aren't able to find an extracurricular that you like, you could be forced to join one. Then, if you're forced to join a club that you do not like, that could hinder the group's progress and work. For example, if someone who doesn't know how to play lacrosse joins the lacrosse team, some people would be angry. Especially if the new person doesn't want to play and doesn't know how. They are most likely diving headfirst into the sport without learning the rules. That means they wouldn't know how to check correctly, wouldn't know defense or attack, and wouldn't know the rules for scoring. On top of that, them not wanting to do lacrosse would ruin the team dynamic. We had a player one year who did not want to play on the defense, so she played the position as bad as she could, making the people who were trying to play well angry, and ruining our teamwork. So, if people don't want to participate in a club or sport, they might ruin it for everyone else, and that wouldn't be beneficial.

Next, having an extracurricular on top of everything that you already have to do, like homework or family, could make you stressed and exhausted. I know for me that having lacrosse practice, Odyssey of the Mind, and homework every single day makes me exhausted. I enjoy playing lacrosse, and I enjoy OM, but when I get home from lacrosse after an hour and a half, and having done OM before that, I have exceeded my limits of activity for the day. All that I want to do is take a shower and go to sleep. If I have to do my homework and spend more time working, I will most likely be very tired the next day. With that, other people might have little siblings that they have to take care of, and being in a club, going home and doing their homework, and after that, taking care of siblings, will give them a lot of stress to do everything fast, making them rush their homework to make sure that their sibling are cared for, or neglecting their siblings to do their homework well. Juggling multiple responsibilities can impact stress levels, productivity, and time management.

Finally, people who are not in a club can have multiple reasons not to be in a club. You could choose not to be in a club because your parents can't pick you up afterwards, you have too much homework every night, you have siblings to take care of, etcetera. People who aren't participating in any extracurriculars just might not want the responisibility of remembering. Everyone has a reason, even if it's that it doesn't sound interesting.

Joining an extracurricular should not be forced onto students. I think that if you force someone to do anything that they do not want to, they will not participate and that will come back around to you in negative ways.