After school clubs are an important part of all school environments. It lets students with the same hobbies come together to enjoy their interests as a group. It is something to look forward to after a long day of school full of essays and quizzes. Clubs are an opportunity for students to unwind and do something they are interested in and enjoy after school. But lately, it feels like not as many students are attending after school clubs. When I was in elementary school, it felt like more people attended after school clubs. Now that I’m a freshman in high school, it feels like there are way less students attending said clubs. But what is the reason for the decrease in club attendance?
Sports
One of the big reasons why students don’t attend after school clubs is due to a number of reasons. For example, many of them play a sport(s) on a school team, or an outside team. If you play a sport, you often have a lot of practices and games after school so it gives you less time to find other activities you want to be involved in after or before school besides sports. Being on a sports team requires a lot of commitment, time, and effort being put into getting better and practicing your skills. Students who play sports usually don’t get their homework done until late that night after the game or practice is over, so if they hardly have enough time for homework, then there isn’t any time for them to find other activities to do. In my general opinion, the Northport school community is very athletic and big on sports, which is probably one of the main reasons why I feel like less and less people are joining after school clubs.
Not enough time
According to falconsfocus.org students not having enough free time may be another key reason why student enrollment is declining for after school clubs and activities. A reason for this is due to students who are taking advanced classes which can cause them to feel overwhelmed with the amount of work and studying they have to do. It is even more difficult if students are in more than one advanced class, which can be hard for them to balance the amount of time they study for. Students who have to study a lot don’t have enough free time to themselves. This leads to them not being able to join many clubs, compared to a student who isn’t in any advanced classes who has more time on their hands.
Lack of Interest
This reason is pretty straight forward and simple to understand. Some students might not find any clubs interesting. They will go through the list of clubs offered but none of them will spark any interests or hobbies that the student likes or enjoys. If there is nothing that the student finds interesting, then they wouldn’t want to join any clubs.
Going to a Meeting Once and Never Coming Back
In the beginning of the school year many students would join clubs since the year had just started. Students always try out new clubs at the beginning of the year to see if they would like to stay for the remainder of the school year. If they’re not interested, they might only come to one meeting and will never return again. If they are enjoying the club, then they will stick around for the rest of the year and will try to attend when they are free. As a member of the Port Press, I’ve seen this happen many times and this is only my first year in high school. We had around 20 students in September and now there are usually less than 10 during the Thursday afternoon meetings which I always attend. I’m also part of the Yearbook Club and the same thing occurs in cyclic pattern.
