Why Extracurricular Actitivities in Middle School Are Important

Middle school didn't used to be an important time in the extracurricular lives of kids. Even just a generation ago, the focus in middle school was on developing academic and study skills in preparation for high school. And, with all the social and developmental challenges of the middle school years, that was more than enough to keep most kids busy.

Nowadays, though, many children begin serious extracurricular activities in elementary school—or even before. Parents, keenly aware of the competition for college admissions down the road—and often also wanting something to keep their kids "too busy to get into trouble"—start early, filling their children's lives with piano lessons, chess, and (not or) soccer, to name just a few common choices.

Parents' thinly veiled hopes are that their children will, over time, excel at one or more of these activities—or, at the very least, improve their brains and physical condition, making future achievement more likely.

But there is another, much better reason for exposing kids to extracurriculars early: so they can try out a wide variety of activities and see which ones appeal to them. Such experimentation is particularly valuable in middle school because by then, children's mature interests and predilections are beginning to become apparent. Academic pressure is also much less in middle school than it will be later on, so using one's free time to check out the drama club, yearbook, or whatever else is available is considerably easier.

Middle schools vary widely in the quantity and quality of their extracurricular activities, so, if at all possible, parents should closely examine a potential school's offerings when deciding where to enroll their children. Ideally a middle school will offer a broad array of well-structured extracurriculars so that, during these final years before high school, students can try out as many different kinds of activities as possible. This sort of experimentation will provide students with a better sense of what they like and don't like and, ultimately, of who they are as people.