Photo Credit: JP PORTRAITS
BY LOUIS DENNIN
The direction and purpose of high school has been misinterpreted by both its attendees and operators for far too long. Regrettably, high school has been reduced to a facility that sets its students on a preprogrammed course to earn the highest marks on an exam just so they can get into the highest ranking universities. In reality, school’s most important job is to provide life experiences for maturing youth, as the knowledge gained from real world “trial and error” will always be more useful to a young adult than any science lesson or math equation. While the intelligence from textbooks is important, and taking classes is indeed an experience of its own, fundamental hands-on life lessons are a unique skill that can only be gained from extracurricular activities. Sadly, extracurricular activities are being shamefully pushed under the rug by the educational standards.
The idea of getting accepted into a top tier college is fiercely drilled into the heads of students, resulting in them becoming blind to the world outside of grades and test scores. This system has turned high school students into zombies who desire nothing but brains- no pun intended. Many have opted out of partaking in extracurricular activities because they would get in the way of their studies and tutoring sessions. They limit themselves to the exploration of their textbooks, ignoring opportunities to explore the world and really, truly live. While of course it is true that there are students who take many extracurricular courses in hopes that they will help them get into college, these students usually also take on several very rigorous courses and often find themselves under far more stress than they can handle. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “Indicators of successful participation in school include consistent attendance, academic achievement, and aspirations for continuing education beyond high school. Extracurricular participation was positively associated with each of these success indicators among public high school seniors in 1992.” Rather than making extracurricular activities difficult for students taking high level courses, they should be made flexible and accessible to all who desire to participate.
As people grow older, they look back and cherish their memories of that one great play they made on the football team, or that one amazing melody they learned in the band. No one, however, looks back twenty years and relives that incredible AP study session they had alone in their room. Despite this, students have allowed the pressure to take higher level courses over the magic of being a member of an organization. Members of clubs often learn how to cooperate with others, are taught new skills and make many more friends than they would have otherwise. By investing time and hard work into something others care about as well, students who partake in extracurricular activities find pride in shared achievements, which is a very different experience compared to the feeling of achieving something alone, like grades.
This predicament is not the student’s fault, however. It’s hard to blame them for neglecting extracurricular activities when the school system often neglects them just the same. Let it be clear that not all school staff are against clubs and sports teams, as many of them are irreplaceable supporters of such activities. The problem lies with the education system itself. Extracurricularly involved or not, almost every student aspires to make it into a great university someday to become the person they want to be in real life. Ideally, universities would pick out potential students by weighing his or her academic rigor, extracurricular rigor and test scores evenly.
Sadly, this little fantasy is shattered by an unfortunate stroke of insanity, courtesy of the education system’s conductors. Test scores and AP classes are, by quite a margin, the heaviest factors in college application. In most cases, the hours one would devote to their clubs is completely overlooked in favor of how high their SAT score is, or in other words, their ability to sit in a room for five hours and shade in little bubbles.
If a university is supposed to be preparing its students to live successfully in the real world, why does it judge its applicants based on how well they did on a test that will likely never matter to that student again? Why do they treat clubs, sports and other extracurricular activities as such a minimal factor? It’s these kinds of programs that truly teach high school students realistic lessons in time management, social skills and dedication. Now, obviously this is not to say extracurricular activities carry no value in a college resume. As stated by almost every reference to college application, such as CollegeExpress.com, extracurricular achievement and involvement are definitely factors that are considered by colleges. These extracurricular achievements, however, are almost always looked at after test scores, grades and AP credits, leaving no impact.
In all honesty, the very name “extracurricular” is insulting. It’s a label that can easily translate to “secondary to classes,” which is exactly how we treat them. Until there’s a class for giving students life experiences on par with the larger-than-life sensation of being a part of a passionate organization, the “extracurricular” activities should be renamed to the “Life Enhancing, Memory Making, and Imperative That You Do These” activities. Yes, this new name doesn’t flow quite as well as the last, but maybe that will make more people pay attention to these undervalued, underfunded marvels of high school existence.
