Ever heard of Bill Nye the Science Guy? If you have, please "Consider the Following". School doesn't give many people vibes of achievement, goals, or learning. In fact, school is a pretty stressful time for young people and their peers. I've known students who haven't slept in a week and yet still show up for school. With the chaos that might erupt during the hours of education, adding more would not be ideal. Extracurricular activities can be important and fun for some students, yes, but we have to consider every possible situation that could prevent some students from being able to. Students have their own lives out of the seven hours, and adding more could be something that they are not able to keep up with, that could affect their mental health, or could damage future opportunities.

Students already have work they are given to do after school, and they have responsibilities they have to keep up with when they come home. So homework aside, they could still have a lot to do at home. Parents could be working and they have to tend to their younger siblings. They take shifts at a local Starbucks to earn money so they can help with the bills. Or if they're in America, they could be saving up to pay for college applications. They possibly just come home and relax because they had a big exam and are absolutely drained of any and all energy. Whatever the situation is, after school activities could interfere with their personal and/or outside life. And if the extracurricular is during school or on weekends, that's just more valuable time taken from them that could be used for something else. And that could drain them of energy even more. There could be billions of reasons why they just cannot keep up, and we must take that into consideration.

One of the reasons they might not be able to keep up is because life might be bringing them down. Many students across the globe are so sickeningly stressed, and they aren't even two decades into their life. Adults still have dreams about school and get stressed out about them when they are awake, even if they have graduated years ago. And did you know the average high school student has the same anxiety levels as a 1950's psychiatric patient? While the world has developed from the 1950's, that does not make these facts any less terrifying. And adding more can do something to their mental state of mind. Picture it: a stereotypical basketball player, playing after school 'til six. Suddenly everyone's cheering for them, and the pressure gets to them as they struggle to keep grades up, get good scores on exams, get scholarships, and take care of everything. They become tense and irritable and they don't find time to breathe. Forcing extracurricular activities on top of students while already piling homework and tests and competitions, it is bound to make them break. In fact, forcing even things they like can make them lose their interests. If you force them to do something everyday, they will find that it is probably just for the grade instead of the experience, and they could quickly lose interest in something that they adored before.

All this loss of interest can also play a part in damaging the future. Remember when we talked about saving money for college? If they can't earn enough to apply, that's one missed opportunity right there. They could have been the world's next Einstein and we wouldn't ever know. Or because of working after school on the yearbook committee they miss a party that could have been the best night of their life. A memory that could have stuck with them was erased as soon as they signed up for the student council. We will never know how the future plans out but we have to let the students decide for themselves about that. They need to experience what they choose and when they choose to live it.

So as you can see, everyone lives in their own time and their own place and comfort zone. You can't force things on students forever. If it ever comes to go big or go home, when in student's doubt, just let them decide what works for them. Because these extracurricular activities are not always beneficial to the student.

If you enforce them with knowing everything, it effects their mental being, and can affect their lives outside of school and their future as well.