School clubs waste of time and more importantly money
By Khushi Patel
While clubs are a handy way to bolster your college apps, they don’t necessarily improve the lives of their members. Many students partake in school clubs solely for the benefit to their college apps, rather than the clubs’ value. There are multiple clubs with the same purpose, such as CSF, Tutoring club, and Peer Tutoring clubor Interact, KEY, and LEO club. Additionally some clubs are not as beneficial as they like to say. For example, clubs that focus more on the social aspect rather than the service aspect of their club are usually superficial. Does having a club centered on atheism, agnostic, and humanist ideals really benefit anyone? Does calligraphy club really provide you with a useful skill? What substance does it really provide to the school? Often times such clubs only fulfill their requirements, one service event and meeting, in order to establish themselves as a club and so that the participants have something interesting to put on their apps. Such clubs claim their purpose is to create a safe place for students looking to meet others with the same belief. However, if the club itself only meets once or twice, is that enough to build substantial relationships with like-minded people?
Although it is true that some clubs are created with good intentions to provide students with useful skills that will enhance their readiness for the future, a lot of them require a mandatory “donation.” For certain competitive clubs in order to actually be considered a part of the club, you have to pay a compulsory fee. Not to mention, some students join these competitive clubs for the sole purpose of missing school. This really detracts from the club’s purpose.
Fundraising is a key part of most charitable service clubs. However, when these clubs begin their funding, they rarely ever look into what the charities themselves will be doing with it. Many charities spend more money on publicizing and expanding, and donate very little of the money we raise to the causes themselves.
The most crucial flaw of having school clubs, is that some students have time and others don’t. Clubs can require a ridiculous amount of time commitment. Discounting the conferences and competitions that take place over weekends, students often have to allot time on school days to participate. IHS Mock Trials has competitions on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Oakland from five pm to ten pm. Regardless of a student’s time management skills, the odd hours of seriously competitive clubs, are hard to work around especially students participating in sports or tutoring.
All in all high school clubs are disadvantageous in that either they have faulty purpose or they require too much. Students who focus their time outside of school on fluffing up their college apps with numerous clubs outside of clubs are not only exhausting themselves, but exhausting their pockets for little to no benefit. The time wasted in club events and meetings can be spent far more efficiently by focusing on things that are truly beneficial.