The New Berlin School Board is considering a policy that would require all students to participate in extracurricular activities in order to graduate.
Is this a good idea? Or will it unfairly effect some students, especially those who have to work? Let us know what you think in our interactive forum.
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(8) Read All ResponsesNo, I don't think that Extra-curriculars should be required. They are expensive and some kids need to concentrate on school first. My kids do participate, but they also play in New Berlin soccer club and church activities. Let the kids and parents decide where and when to do these "extra" activities!
No, I do not think that Extra-curricular activities should be required to graduate. My kids to participate in them but, they are expensive and require transportation. They participate in New Berlin Soccer club and church activities also. Some kids are struggling and need to concentrate on school work first! Let the parents and their children decide where and when to participate in these "extra" activities!
No, I do not think that Extra-curricular activities should be required to graduate. My kids to participate in them but, they are expensive and require transportation. They participate in New Berlin Soccer club and church activities also. Some kids are struggling and need to concentrate on school work first! Let the parents and their children decide where and when to participate in these "extra" activities!
When I first heard about this proposal I thought that it should be no problem for kids to be involved in at least 1 extracurricular during high school. It should be no problem for a kid to participate in at least one activity, they should be able to do that standing on their head. But upon discussion and thought I'm not so sure that it's a good idea. There are many reasons not to include this requirement. Economics are one, either for families that can't afford the cost, or the student may need to work. A student may choose to work, why should they have to join a club as they are certainly learning important life skills on a job. Or a student might be needed to help care for siblings. Some activities are not available to all students such as sports teams that can only accomodate a fixed number of students and have try-outs. What is the cost to the community to make sure extracurriculars are available to all? What activities are considered "extracurricular"? Only school sponsored? What about church activities, clubs, sports, volunteer activites done outside of the school, do those count? Maybe a struggling student needs to spend their time on school work. If there are no other reasons that a student is not participating in extracurriculars maybe it's a matter to be addressed by the parents and a counselor to find out why that child is not engaged. I do believe that participation in extracurricular activites is positive and should be encouraged. But I don't think that it should be a requirement.
Definition of extracurricular: outside the regular curriculum or program of courses. If participation is a requirement for graduation, they are no longer 'extra'curricular, but part of the curriculum, like science, math, English, etc. This ought to mean that, like textbooks and the like for curricular classes, these 'extra's will be paid for out of the school portion of the property tax (but I wouldn't count on it). If memory serves, this proposal was made to counter truancy. Question: you have students who don't want to be in school in the first place, so the school board wants to force them to stay in the school even LONGER during the day? I don't now about anybody else, but that seems rather ... foolish.
No, I think that requireing students ot participate in extracurricular activities would be a bad idea because they wouldn't want to be there and would drag the rest of the team down.
EXTRA-curricular means extra. So it should not be necessary to do EXTRA requirements if you meet the requirements to graduate. It seems to me that maybe it is a 'make work' project to give teachers more work/money. Instead of making it harder to graduate schools should make it easier to graduate, for example, if a student can do a math test that shows he/she knows algerbra then let them skip algerbra (but still get credit) and let them move on to geometry, if they can test out of that let them also, etc, etc, etc. There are probably a lot of gifted children sitting in schools bored out of their skulls because of the 19th century approach to education.
No I don't think it should be required, some families can't afford it