Extracurricular activities are very important in a students life. They develop communication skills, social skills, and among others, your ability to work well with other people. On the other hand, they should not be required for all students to participate in. Although all students could possibly find something they're interested in when it comes to after school activities, such as clubs or sports, not all students are capable of handling the responsibilities that come along with an extracurricular activity. Have you ever come to the conclusion that not every student can even maintain good grades at school? For some children, it's harder to balance school work and their everyday life alone, but if you add an extracurricular activity to their plate of responsibilities, it may be too much for them to handle. For a principal to make extracurricular activities a necessity at school, is not very considerate. As an adult you must realize that not every person, let alone children, can handle the same work load as others can.

Even though research has shown that extracurricular activities can be very beneficial for people, as it pertains to their physical, and mental well-being, it can also be damaging if too much work is placed upon one person alone. Stress is a very common factor in a child's life, and the majority of it is from life at home, and the excessive amount of work received at school. But in comparison, some kids can handle the load, and like the responsibility given to them. Not all children are like that though, and that is what the principal fails to realize. Although the principal may not have come to light about the amount of stress that could potentially be put on the students, the gesture to make the activities a necessity was most likely at their best interest at heart.

For the kids that work well under pressure, or have the capability to handle the challenges they face, the change in the schools priorities for the students probably won't affect them as much. Although only one extracurricular activity would be required, not all students could be able to wisely manage their time to fit the activity in their schedule. Also, maybe not all students would be able to find something they enjoy with the options given at their school. If someone were to make it a priority for all students to participate in an extracurricular activity, it would be extremely recommended for the person to make the activity choices an exceptionally wide variety, so that it is more likely for students to find the things they enjoy to do. With the exception of making sure that there would be an activity to match each students interest, the idea would not be too bad. But in the same breath, that'd require some type of survey or application of some type, that every student must take in order to find out their interests, so that way making the activities wont be as difficult. Although keep in mind, that not every student may want to participate regardless of whether or not there is an activity they might enjoy.

There are some students that just don't like the idea of doing extra work when it's not required. It's not necessarily that they're lazy, but they just dont see the importance of going out of their way to do something that they can't see the immediate benefits to. Enforcing the change could arouse some anger in a vast majority of students, and possibly parents, but if the students are given an option to not participate in an extracurricular activity, things would most likely run a lot smoother. Most people would call these types of kids, "average" due to the fact that they settle for the amount of work given, and typically don't want to exceed expectations. Perhaps making them participate in beneficial activities wouldn't hurt, they just need to be a little more open minded to the idea at hand. But the idea as a whole would potentially cause a lot of stress to the principal, considering that not every child will have the same perspective on the idea, nor will their parents.

Yes, the motion being taken will have several benefits, and several stressful altercations, but at the end of the day everyone is different, and not everyone is going to have the same opinion when it comes to this situation. Even though the principal is only asking each student to participate in at least one extracurricular activity, it still may be too much to ask of some kids, considering their life outside of school, and what they find important in their lives as far as activities go. But maybe enforcing this act could open not only the students' eyes, but the parents as well, that trying new things isn't always such a bad idea, sometimes we just need a little push to get us started. But despite all the possible benefits of the idea, it still probably shouldn't necessarily be a requirement for all students to participate in an extracurricular activity. You never know how much stress someone deals with just by handling their personal life, one activity may not seem like much to you, but for some people one activity could be a handful. Forcing the students to participate in activities that they may not like, could possibly lead to a decrease in social skills, instead of an increase.          