Taking part in extra-curricular activities is a difficult task for any busy, pressured teenager, but Eugene Smith thinks there should be a change in attitude by school pupils towards the opportunities available to them.
Before you click the blue arrow in the top left corner of the screen out of a lack of interest in – or perhaps a predicted lack of agreement – with this article, remember that it is written by a school pupil, for a school pupil (you). I’m no teacher setting out to win over participants in extra-curricular activities, merely for the sake of enhancing the school’s image to boost entrants – and without the faintest idea of knowing how to connect with the students I’m talking to. Although the motives behind my writing of this article may well be just as dishonourable as the teacher’s I described above – well… I needed something to write about in my fifth ‘Young Reporter’ instalment, didn’t I? – but I can empathise with you much more than the unnamed teacher can.
Let me explain. At my school, there are a plethora of activities outside the GCSE syllabus that I can take part in, including sports, drama, DT, creative writing, Duke of Edinburgh Award, computer programming, science club and more– and yet there are huge numbers of people who neglect to associate their capable selves with any of them. Although it is clear you have used at least one extra-curricular activity at school (the ‘Young Reporter’ scheme), are you part of the debating team? Or go to science club? Do you give up your lunch-times to rehearse for an Inter-house Drama competition? Give up your Saturday morning for a school Football match?
If you are lucky enough to be in a school with that amount of opportunities, and you do any other activities such as those, congratulations: you are helping yourself build a better future life. But if you don’t, or your friends/peers don’t, why not?
I picked one person from a range of pupils at school who had never done anything like the above in their entire school career, and questioned them on their choice. Their response was bizarrely unsurprising: “Honestly? I just can’t be arsed, I’d wanna play Xbox instead.”
“Can’t be arsed.” And that was the best reason he could come up with. Well, and the fact being part of the debating team is infamously known amongst the year as “gay” (as if homosexuality has anything to do with proving a point on a given subject on stage). Would you say that was the reason for you or your peers not engaging in the activities? Laziness and peer-pressure?
The adolescent years that you now find yourself in are the ones in which you determine what you want to do in life, whether that be acting, or writing, or politics, or literally a world of other occupations. And that is exactly the reason why doing activities like Drama, ‘Young Reporter’, and Debating etc. are so vital. If you are facing the decision between becoming a temporary laughing stock but kick-starting yourself well on your way to huge amounts of UCAS Points (very, very important things by the way) or keeping the ‘respect’ of your classmates and “playing Xbox more” but hindering your own prospects, you will hopefully now know which option to choose as a result of this article. I know which option I’ve picked.
