Everyone can relate to the feeling of getting home from school. You are tired from a long day of learning, so you throw off your backpack, grab a snack, and relax. Now imagine for a moment that instead of getting to come home, you had to stay after school for an extracurricular activity. An extracurricular activity that you might not have even wanted to participate in. Imagine how that would make you feel. The kids at my school don't have to imagine it because we live it, or more correctly we will live it. The principal of my school has decided that every student must participate in at least one extracurricular activity, and I have decided that I disagree with him. Forcing students to participate in an extracurricular activity is a bad decision because of student's schedule, their dislike off being forced to do things, and their lack of interest in extracurricular activities.

Let us start with the first problem, the schedules. It is no secret that students today are busy with all sorts of activities. The principal knows this, yet he insists that we add one more to the mix. Forcing kids to add another activity to their already full schedule will only cause problems. Students may struggle to keep up with all of their activities, or they may have to give up something they love to make room for a school mandated activity. You may argue that many students have completely empty schedules, so this will not harm them. To that I say no. Many students do have nothing on their schedule, but that is okay. School is stressful and maybe these students just want to relax with their free time. If that is what they want to do then I think they should be able to do that. Just as students with a full schedules should not have to push aside their own activities for school mandated ones.

The second issue with this school rule is the fact that we are being forced into these activities. Most people, especially teenagers, do not like being forced to do things. When you force people to things they become angry and resistant. Possibly even more resistant than if you just asked them to do whatever you are forcing them in to. This rule will do just that. The students will be angry that they are being forced to participate in things they do not care about. Kids who might have actually been interesting in some extracurricular activities might be put off doing them because instead of giving them the choice to it, they were forced.

The final issue this rule has relates back to the second. Do you know what happens when you force a bunch of teenagers into extracurricular activities they do not care about? You get lazy members of clubs and sports teams full of students who don't want to be there. Just because the principal can make students participate in school activities does not mean he can make them care. This rule will result in students joining clubs and teams not for the fun of it, but because they have to. This will not only be unpleasant for the kids who have to do activities they don't care about, but for kids who actually want to be in the clubs. It is not fun to play soccer if half the kids on your team could not care less if you win or lose. By forcing everyone in to an extracurricular you will be ruining them for everyone.

I am sure that the idea to make students participate in extracurricular activities seemed like a great idea at the time, but after looking at the points I have made I am sure that it is obvious that is was flawed from the start. I am not saying that encouraging extracurricular activities is bad. I am saying that forcing students in to extracurricular activities is bad. This rule is a horrible idea because students are to busy to add another thing on to their schedule, forcing them to participate will only make them angry, and once they are in the clubs the student's disinterest will ruin it for everyone.