Extracurricular Activity Participation Essay

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Just about every high school in the United States provides students with the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports, volunteering, music, academic or interest clubs, and student government . The question arising is whether low income students are less likely to participate in these extracurricular activities. Understanding the causes and reasons behind the significantly lower amount of extracurricular activity participation among low socioeconomic students incites a systematic approach to a solution. If impoverished students are unequally participating in extracurricular activities compared to high-income students, than they are also deprived of the procured benefits such as leadership experiences and social …show more content…

1-2). Recognizing these hindrances can establish income inequality awareness and can also allow us to understand the pressure many young adults who live in financially disadvantaged households are undergoing. According to a statistical report published by the National Center For Education Statistics, which is a governmental source that collects, analyzes, and reports information on the educational conditions in America, the average participation in activities of low socioeconomic seniors in a public school is 73.85% while the average participation of high socioeconomic seniors is 87.2% (National Center For Education Statistics, 1995, p. 2). The participation of high socioeconomic status students in extracurricular activities is significantly higher than the participation of low socioeconomic status students. The statistical report also established a distinction between the effects of the availability of extracurricular activities showing that minority status, size, or location of school don’t limit it, but instead, the income level of individual students is the main driving factor to the meagerness of participation. Therefore, many low-income level students are also deprived of being able to participate in extracurricular activities due to the shortage of aiding …show more content…

Contrastly, low socioeconomic parents are sedentary and don't have the time to support, provide transportation, and understand their children like high income parents do. This is partially due because they work several jobs restricting them from transportation as well as not having the time to fully go out and support their children (Armstrong, 2014). Thus, due to the interpersonal constraints of low socioeconomic parents exhibiting disinterest in extracurricular activity participation, many students accept the barriers they’ve encountered and become less interested in trying to

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