Imagine that your sitting in your eighth period science classroom learning about what electrons and dry cells are. Then the bell starts ringing indicating that the tiring school day has finally come to an end. You quickly pack up your stuff, excited to go home after a very long and stressful day of hard work, tests, projects, and essays. You are so excited to go home that you almost forget about your mandatory yearbook club meeting that you have after school today. Extracurricular activities are activities such as sports, clubs, or student councils that are not part of the seven hours in your school day. Drama club, Art club, your schools football team, and basketball team are all great examples of some of the extracurricular activities that your school may offer for their students. Students should not have to do any mandatory extracurricular activities, because it takes away from some of their homework time, they may have responsibilities after school, and some students just might not enjoy any of the extracurricular activities.

First, doing an extracurricular activity takes away from a students' already short amount of time they get for their homework. Almost every one of our teachers assigns about one hour of homework for each of our classes everyday, expecting everything to be completed, perfect, and correct that very next day, adding on an extracurricular activity would just make life that much harder and stressful on students. There have been times when I would be doing homework for five hours straight with no breaks, and hardly getting everything finished on time, and I didn't even have any of these extracurricular activities to do after school. These hour long activities would tire out students even more then a normal school day would, and cause them to want to go to sleep when they get home, and this could lead them to forget about their homework or not having enough time to get it done. If some students already don't do their homework imagine how many wouldn't do it because of these activities taking up time in their day. Homework is about ten percent of our grade in almost all of our classes and not doing it can make our grades drop drastically and quickly. One of my friends, PROPER_NAME, had to stop playing softball for a three seasons, because her grades were suffering and she didn't have enough time to get all of her work done. With sports in particular you could be having up to four hours of practice after school everyday.

Secondly, lots of students could have responsibilities after school. Lots of kids chores they have to do when they get home like taking out the trash, helping make dinner, and doing the laundry. Also some students may have younger siblings that they need to take care of because their parents work late at night. My dad is a doctor and has to work long hours, he doesn't get home until late at night, around seven or eight, and my mom gets home around four or five in the afternoon, so my older sister, Generic_Name, has to pick our eight year old brother, Generic_Name, up from his school almost everyday. Some other students might have jobs they have to do after school to earn some extra money. They could be using that money to help out their families, because they might not be in a very good or stable financial state. The schools don't know if their students have personal problems at home with money or not. They also might be saving money for their future or collage tuition ,so they don't have to get a loan and go in to debt. Having an extracurricular activity would get in the way of all of this. This could cause students to struggle with balancing school, extracurricular activities, homework, and their jobs.

Finally, students just might not enjoy any of the extracurricular activities. They may not find any activity that they like or that sparks their interest. If students are forced to do an activity they don't like they are going to loath their days even more then normal. They might also feel nerves or awkward if they don't know anyone in their extracurricular activity, causing them to not want to talk to anybody. Like when I went to my gym class the first day of school, it was the only class I didn't know anybody in. I hated it for the first month until a couple of my friends transferred into the class. Also some students might not like staying after school and would prefer to go home and relax for a little. I only stay after school when I have to because I missed a big test, but any other day I would just walk home with my friends and relax a little before starting my homework.

In conclution, I believe that having any sort of mandatory extracurricular activity after school would not benefit the students there for it would not be the best nor the smartest idea to have them. Homework, after school responsibilities, and enjoyment should take a large roll in the decision making, and I don't believe that extracurricular activities is what is best for the students and their education. I say that we should stick with extracurricular activities being optional and letting whom ever wants to do these activities do them, but at their own free will. Now, imagine that back in your science classroom at the end of the day. The last bell ringing indicating the tiring school day is now finally over. Your getting ready to go home after the long day of hard work, tests, projects, and essays to relax.