What Is The Importance Of Extracurricular Activities Essay

Extracurricular activities as defined by the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary are anything that a student does outside of the normal classroom routine. This is a broad category which includes sports, clubs, arts, jobs, etc. A study conducted through the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health showed that more than 70 percent of students participate in some type of extracurricular activity. Due to its vastness, it is easy for students to involve themselves in these activities. Extracurricular activities are good for students because they promote teamwork, motivation, physical and mental health, and they look good on college applications. Extracurricular activities promote teamwork as a unit, and teamwork between the student and adult

Any one person who fails individually causes a domino effect of the groups success, which is why it is so important to work together in these extracurriculars, but even more importantly in the workforce later in life. This is why it is such a big deal in sports when one person is a “ball hog” or in a musical setting when one person is much louder and sticks out from the others. There is a difference between being a leader, another quality taught in extracurricular activities, and not being a team player. “In organized team sports, children work together to accomplish a task and learn from their mistakes. These lessons directly translate into the classroom and beyond, and they are the reason that Little League considers itself a youth leadership organization, as much as it does a competitive baseball and softball program,” (Keener). In the same sense that it creates teamwork between peers, extracurricular activities also create a teamwork relationship between a student and the coach or mentor. These relationships are just as