Time. Something that is infinite, but somehow everyone needs more of. In middle school especially, time takes a strange stance in a person's life. It seems as if you have all the time in the world before adult life, yet none at all. I believe that after-school activities can play a big role in peoples' middle school experience, however I disagree with making them mandatory. I disagree with required extracurricular activities because they take away free time from everyone involved, give people another obligation to fulfill, and cost the school extra money.

First, all activities take up time. When you require them, it is no longer a matter of "if you have time," but now a matter of "you need to have time." Everyone has things to do in life other than being at school all the time. Whether it be parents, students, or teachers, this takes time away from everyone involved, and makes it so that they don't have time to participate in the things they are really passionate about outside of school. Not only this, but required after-school participation is basically just an extension of the school day. Students and school faculty are already at school for seven hours a day, and have work to complete at home. These two things combined can take up to ten hours out of a person's day, barely leaving time for meals and an adequate amount of sleep. By taking up even more time in a person's life with required after-school participation, you end up cutting into their daily needs, which can affect their day-to-day performance.

Second, getting everyone on board with mandtory after-school activities is going to be tough. The first problem that this raises is defiant students. Most students would rather be with their friends, playing video games, or having fun outside, than staying at school and being forced to participate in something they don't have any interest in. I find that lots of students will probably go ahead and do what they want, instead of following the rules and staying after school. The next problem with getting everyone involved would be parents. Though it may not seem like it, parents have a very busy life. Whether it's work or other engagements of their own, parents may not be able to make their personal schedules work along with mandatory extracurricular activities. The third and final problem that getting everyone involved has is teachers and faculty. Teachers, just like everybody else, have lives outside of school. Lots of teachers have very busy lives already, being parents or simply having other duties as well. Because of this, getting students, parents, and teachers alike to agree on required after-school activities will be nearly impossible, simply because there are too many people to take into account.

Last, extracurricular activities cost the school money. The first extra cost will be general building expenses, like heating, cooling, water, and electric. By more people being in the building for a longer period of time, there will be more rooms with lights on, more people using the bathrooms, and the heating/cooling system will have to run longer, making the school's bills go through the roof. Second, the school will have to provide transportation. Even after you get parents on board with required participation, they may not be able to pick up their child. With around seven hundred students, going to twenty different neighborhoods, you will need at least twenty-five buses, which could end up costing the school thousands over the course of a year. The final cost that comes along with extracurricular activities will be paying teachers. Since faculty will have to stay after hours, some could argue that what are required extracurricular activities for students are forced overtime hours for teachers. In this case, teachers would want compensation for their work, yet again costing the school more money.

All in all, requiring extracurricular activities is a bad idea. If the school wants a way for students to branch out and try new things, they could try instituting a school day solely for that purpose. We have a system called

Highlander Day at my school, where people can take anything from CPR training, to theater classes, to personal finance classes. I believe that this is a great alternative to mandatory after-school activities because it doesn't take away free time from anyone, it's easy to get everyone to participate, and it doesn't cost the school any extra money.