What are Extracurricular Activities?

I'm sorry to post here, but I'm French, and I have to do a homework assignment about extracurricular activities in English-speaking countries. I found lots of things here, and I wanted to know if you could tell me more about that.

Is your job near where you do your activities? What are the rules in these activities, when do you do them and all details that you can tell me about that. I hope you can help me. And please excuse my English. I'm just in 4th form.

My college had way too many extracurriculars. I remember on club day every club and organization would set up a table in the quad. There were hundreds. You would walk around, decide you wanted to join 20 clubs, realize how unfeasible that was and end up joining none. We were drowned in choice.

I don't think you can overstate the benefits of extracurricular activities. There are so important for students when they are young and forming.

Extracurriculars allow you to identify what you are really passionate about. Not many kids are honestly into algebra. But some are into planes. By attending the meeting of an aviation club, they might discover their love of flying and realize that they need to be good at math to get behind the controls of a plane. It helps you prepare to do what you want in life and what could be more important than that?

What clubs were you guys in in high school? Personally, I was in the ecology club and I played on the ultimate frisbee team. I may sound like I was a huge hippie back then, but I just happened to like playing frisbee and cleaning up trashy local parks. My hair was short and I listened to a lot of bad hard rock. Nothing hippie about me.

@irontoenail - To be honest, I always referred to all clubs and things as "extracurricular activities" even if they weren't attached to a particular school. The internet makes it so much easier to find groups like that these days. And if there aren't any around, well, it's also a good learning experience for kids to found a group.

@anon42603 - That's kind of weird actually. I would have thought most European schools were similar to the US and offer at least chances to do sports. And even things like maths clubs often seem to have some kind of international competition component, so there must be chances to do something like that at some schools.

Or maybe there are no extracurricular activities and it is a matter of finding clubs away from school which are doing the same thing. In a way, it's almost better, because it means the kids get to mingle away from their school groups.

@ceilingcat - I never thought of it that way, but almost all of my extracurricular activities in school involved my parents spending money and getting involved in some way. I'm glad my parents were able to do that, but I'm not sure what the options are for families with lower incomes.

I know extracurricular school activities can be great for helping kids learn teamwork, keeping them out of trouble, and helping them meet people. But unfortunately, most extracurricular activities involve money and some help from parents.

Most clubs have dues, and for sports teams you have to purchase the uniforms. You also need someone to drive you to and from all of these activities. So, I feel like a lot of kids who are from lower income families get shut out of doing these things, and then they suffer because colleges put so much weight on extracurriculars.

@Monika - I agree with you. There are so many extracurricular activities benefits, so it's good that kids have options. Not everyone is athletic, but not everyone wants to do academic competitions either. With so many options, most kids can find at least one extracurricular activity to participate in.

I think it's great that there are so many school extracurricular activities besides sports. I'm not very athletic, so when I was in school I had no interest in joining a sports team at all. But I still wanted to join a group and get involved with stuff that was going on at my school.

I ended up joining a group that was dedicated to community service, and it was a really great experience. I got to be involved in my community and meet other people, without the pressure of trying to win a game. And I admit, it did look pretty great on my college applications.

Extracurricular activities are a good thing because they are thought to help kids do well academically. However, an overload of activities can be a strain on the budget and also on mom and her time. The best thing to do is to set limits. Figure out what you can afford in money and time and go from there. Most people find that one activity per child is quite manageable both financially and in the time area.

mom0103 - You're correct about extracurricular activities being important to academics. Colleges not only look at potential students' academics, but also their extracurricular activities. Activities the student participated in tell the college important aspects about the student such as how they've made a meaningful contribution to something, what their non-academic interests are, whether they can maintain a long-term commitment, whether they can manage their time and priorities, and what diversity they'd bring to the student body. Extracurricular activities are very important indeed.

Extracurricular activities are a good thing because they are thought to help kids do well academically. However, an overload of activities can be a strain on the budget and also on mom and her time. The best thing to do is to set limits. Figure out what you can afford in money and time and go from there. Most people find that one activity per child is quite manageable both financially and in the time area.

To bad that they don't offer anything similar in austria. if I want to do some extracurriculars, either I have to found some or search for some existing clubs till i am crazy. some people are just so lucky.