Extracirricular activites, they are fun. However, they end up being less enjoyable when you're forced into it. I don't believe that forcing students to participate in something they despise, or are otherwise uninterested in, is a clever idea. The main reasons behind this statement are that some students may have responsibilities outside of school, the quality and enjoyment for other members will be lessened or the overall product will suffer, and the students' grades could drop substancially.

Firstly, some students have requirements outside of school. If students have to give up free time for a club they didn't want to do, their other responsibilities will end up rushed and messy. Homework, a job, music lessons, horse back riding lessons, tutoring and many more, are examples of responsibilities and interests that may need to be dropped in worst case scenario, and given less attention in best case scenario. Very few students will manage to juggle all of that, so ultimately, something will slip or be dropped.

Next, the quality of the final product or overall enjoyment could be made much less by having people in the club who don't care and don't want to be there. For the yearbook committee, if you have people that don't want to do anything, the people who actually put forth effort will feel more stressed or pressured, and as a result, the final product won't be as good. In clubs like Chess club, people might not try because they don't care. They just signed up for it because they had to. Once again, having people who don't care about the club in a place where you came to enjoy yourself and be around likeminded individuals can be extremely disheartening. Being forced into something that you hate doing will also cause you to not put forth as much effort as would be required normally.

Finally, a student's grades could slip dramatically. This happens for several reasons, they no longer care, they're having a hard time with the material, or they simply don't have time. If you require students to participate in an extracirricular activity they could spend time that they really need for studying, doing something that they don't want to do in the first place. A few problems come as the result of this, if it's highschool, maybe they'd have a harder time getting into collage. Their parents will most likely be upset with them as a result of slipping grades, which can cause tension between them, and result in personal stress seeping into school life. Not to mention, if they start to fight and argue with their parents all the time, and then feel like a failure in their afterschool activity as well as with their grades, that level of stress could lead them to depression, self harm, and even suicidal ideations.

In conclusion, causing students to potentially drop out of activites they enjoy, lowering club enjoyment for people who actually care, and causing stress that could possibly lead to mental issues or even death, is too many cons to risk implementing this change, and the change should be taken back immidiately. If you are a principal reading this and wondering if you should implement the policy, I truly hope that you think about the potential consequences of your action, before you see any of these risks take effect.