In 2008 the Miami-Dade School Board approved $89 million dollars in budget cuts (McGrory 2008). As a result of this cut teachers raises were reduced, administrators had to be laid off, and schools lost $17 million in discretionary funds, which they use to pay for stuff like field trips and extra curricular activities. Since 2008, the Miami-Dade district s budget has shrunk by $1.6 billion (Isensee 2011). In an attempt to use their increasingly meager budgets more efficiently, school administrators are decreasing their funding for extra curricular activities. In most cases, budgets for Broward county school programs involving music, art, and physical education were either cut in half, or the programs were completely eliminated. District officials are not aware of all the things that are taken away from a school and its students when they cut fundings for extra curricular activities. Without funds to carry these organizations how can the basketball team afford to give its members uniforms? How can the marching band provide its students with functional instruments to play with at the football games? Where is the drama department supposed to come up with the money for prop material or costumes? Script copies cost money, too. These programs can not exist without said commodities and without these programs, how much can one actually get from their high school experience? Think back to your time in high school. I bet you remember going to the football games every friday, or watching the cheerleaders as they tossed and flipped each other 10 feet into the air during pep rallies, or listening to the drum line as they paraded around your school on the day of the homecoming game. These are the kinds of things that bring life to a school and its student body.
All these programs work to bring out the best in their students and they make high school really memorable, however, they are often overshadowed by the great emphasis put into building good football teams. Why is it that football is the only activity that schools insist on supporting financially? A school s varsity football team usually consists of about 30-40 players. A public school s student body on average consists of 2,400 students. The football teams hardly count for 2% of a school s population. They are not even the largest working activity. A school s marching band can range from 50 to 300 members. The chorus can have as many as 120 students. Despite the great size of such programs and the great passion the students have towards them, they are neglected and expected to develop on their own. Who is to say that a having good football program is the only way to build a school pride and reputation? Together, organizations like the debate clubs, student governments, computer clubs, language clubs, photography/arts clubs, and even the chess teams can make up a rather large portion of the student body and can be just as important towards building a good school reputation as having a good football team. Is it fair that students have to pay from 250 to 1000 dollars in band fees just to be in a good program while football players are provided with uniforms and covered travel expenses allowing them to compete in all sorts of events free of charge? Not to mention that marching bands are brought up to support their teams. Other sports teams like the tennis, lacrosse, water polo, and golf teams also receive no support from their schools in keeping them alive. Now, some may say, well, football brings in revenue, those sports do not. That seems rather selfish does it not? Why not use that revenue to support these other teams? If the poor band kids can cough up hundreds of dollars just to be in the program, I am almost certain that the football players can pay to go to their away games. The
players committed to their water polo, their tennis, and their lacrosse work just a hard as the football team and deserve just as much support. Extra curricular activities also offer students a variety of learning experiences. In any team sport, an individual may learn how to better cooperate with others, leadership skills, how to accept a little constructive criticism, or how to face defeat with resilience. These kind of skills can not be taught in a math class or an english course to its students. They are only gained from experience and they are all applicable to real life. Some students may never use their knowledge of cell reproduction or their ability to divide polynomials in their life but experience in leadership is something one can take anywhere, whether it is a future career or going on to teaching others. Just last year, the band program at Everglades high school went through a huge ordeal due to the fact that the director of the program was being laid off because of budget cuts. Ashleigh Jaggars, a junior at the time and their current drum major, made a stand in their time of need. She made several calls to some district officials and motivated everyone in the program to fight for the directors job. She got the issue at hand televised, and alone went to the school board and laid her case. This student had previously been in the school s debate team and lead the marching band. If not for having practiced how to properly debate on an issue or having had experience in leadership, she might not have been as successful because in the end, she won, and the band did get to keep their beloved band director. It has been proven on many several occasions that those high school students who participate in sports teams and school clubs tend to be more successful than those who do not. In a study done by researchers at Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts, in 2001, it was
found that middle-school kids in inner-city neighborhoods who play organized team sports have a higher sense of self-worth and better social skills than their less athletic peers (Gardner 2001). Another study done in 2001 by Gary Overton, a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at East Carolina University, revealed that those who are athletically involved have a mean GPA of 2.98, on average they miss 6.3 days of school in a 180 day school year, and have a drop out rate of.6% (The Case 07). Those who are not athletically involved have a mean GPA of 2.17, on average miss 11.9 days of school, and have a drop out rate of 10.32%. Also, When you take a look at the non-athletic organizations, they all teach the same values as the athletic ones. In an interview with Marcos Rodriguez, the current band director of Everglades High School, he explains how he teaches his kids a lot more than just how to play their instrument. He preaches the importance of punctuality, discipline, cooperation, and respect, many values like those picked up from playing in a team sport. School board members only see the importance of providing the students with education in science, mathematics, history, and English. Some might even see extra curricular activities as a waste of valuable learning time but theres so much more to human intelligence than just the linguistic abilities involved in language classes, or the numeric abilities involved in logic and math. There are the music abilities involved in creating music. Musicians are challenged to play long, forward-moving arrays of notes in tune and with blend so that it contributes fully to the ensemble. There are also the physical abilities involved in being a strong athlete or dancer. These people are knowledgable in fitness and are highly coordinated when it comes to their body movement. Social skills can even be one of those gained from participating in something like a debate team, language club, or student government. People learn to communicate professionally
and more confidently because of such programs. Think of any great president and his ability to move the public through the way he carried out his speeches. Franklin D. Roosevelt for example was able to keep his nation s heads up high through a time of great turmoil through a series of speeches and rants over the radio. Such a skill can be learned with the right experience like that gained off being a team captain, or participating in a debate team. None of these types of intelligences are easy at all to master. Most average people cannot even begin to learn them, and without good programs, students are becoming very limited to what they can achieve and gain from them. Not only is getting involved a good learning experience, but it gives students a chance to explore their hobbies of interest, more so the opportunity to discover a passion. People make careers out of their great talents. The very famous actor, Nicholas Cage, got into acting because he joined his school drama club. He has been in countless films and makes millions of dollars! Not every one is going to be good at Math or Science so it is very important that there are programs out there for kids to discover their talent. True talent needs to be discovered and then fostered for it to shine. Everyone has something they are good at or something they enjoy doing. If entertainment or playing a professional sport, is that thing, then one should be given the opportunity to pursue it. Having a passion can also be very beneficial towards developing healthy social and emotional lives. Passions foster social bonds because one is able to meet new people with similar interests. They also promote happiness by giving people purpose or objectives to work toward for, that give people a sense of satisfaction once they reach it. When you are passionate about a hobby, you are no longer limited to evaluate yourself by professional performance at work or by
fulfilling a family role (Catmark 2010). When one s life is consumed work, a hobby is just the thing to escape from the mundane lifestyle. Many may say, I don t really have time for that kind of stuff, but most of those who do occupy themselves with a particular activity say that it helps to relieve them of stress. Seems contradictory doesn t it, that some of those who have more on their plate than others have less stress? How great is that? Guidance counselors should also work to try to fill all these different organizations by promoting them to their students. I remember getting into high school my freshman year not knowing what I could possibly get involved with. Luckily, I had a wonderful counselor that convinced me to join the school marching band even though I had no interest in joining it and it turns out I loved playing music. I ended up doing it through all four years of high school and I still to this day work towards mastering how to play my instrument. Unfortunately, some people were not able to afford the luxury of participating. I was lucky enough to have support from my family to help pay the grand total of approximately $2000 dollars to participate in this program for all 4 years. Students can even take their skills into college programs. Most college organizations offer good money for those who want to progress in their activities and this helps these highly capable individuals pay for college. FIU gives its football players a stipend of approximately $2000. A greatly involved musician can earn from $400 to $2000 from participating in marching band and the many other ensembles run at FIU. However, colleges have higher expectations than high schools and there is always competition due to the large amount of students enrolling. Without good high school roots, a student can not expect to make it in a high-demanding university program. This goes without saying that colleges have an eye for the people who are
highly involved in high school because they tend to be more disciplined and responsible individuals, both qualities that in essence determine how successful one will be in college. By not providing the students with a variety of options for getting involved, they are being limited. Without them a lot of students are being denied the chance to explore their physical, creative, social, and career interests. It is evident that the schools that are able to support their programs build better reputations and have the better academically inclined student body. Those that do not provide certain programs to its students or accommodate the existing programs with what they need to grow, should be changed so that they can. This in turn will benefit the school as well as every individual in it.
Works cited: Catmark, Thomas. Why having a hobby is so important articlesfactory.com Jan. 8, 2010. Web. Nov. 29, 2011 Gardner, Amanda. Batters More Likely Up healthscout.com 8/28/2001. Web. Nov. 11, 2011 Isensee, Laura. Dade School Board to finalize $3.9 billion budget infoweb.newsbank.com.fiu.edu. The Miami Herald, Sep. 6, 2011. Web. Nov. 18, 2011 McGrory, Kathleen. Schools Budget slashed by $89m infoweb.newsbank.com.fiu.edu, The Miami Herald, Nov. 18, 2008. Web. Nov. 18, 2011 Rodriguez, Marcos. Personal Interview. Nov. 10, 2011 The Case for High School Activities www.osaa.org/osaainfo Web. Nov 11, 2011