Co-curricular activities encourage the growth of personality and mental stability, including being more socialised, artistic development, and intellectual alertness both emotionally and physically. These activities usually occur outside classrooms and help youngsters to enrich and supplement academic learning.
Taking part in extracurricular activities contributes to classroom and life responsibilities. It helps clarify and reinforce a higher level of theoretical understanding towards life, character building, and spiritual and moral improvement.
Development in responsibilities such as initiating tasks, boost in confidence, upgrades personality and being enlightened in different skills. These are key benefits obtained if one ardently participates in co-curricular activities.
School is a social organisation and the primary source of education every student receives. Schools take responsibility for shaping young minds in terms of knowledge from both lessons and about the external world without implementing any social evil such as caste, colour and creed. Even though schools provide quality education, schools have to ensure that the children get a holistic development in academics and cultivate more skills required to be more refined when exposed to society.
Participating in sports ventures is a key to youth development. Meena, a 16-year-old school-going girl, said, “Being a part of extracurriculars in school and colleges encouraged me in different aspects of academics and life. Initially, these activities felt like an extra burden. At the same time, my friends binge-watched good movies and spent quality time for self-care when I was under the sun playing sports and preparing myself to participate in my inter-school throw ball competition. Participating in these sports events did not make me lazy; I felt very zestful every day.”
A quote by General Douglas MacArthur, “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, on other fields will bear the fruits of victory.” According to MacArthur’s observation, a person who actively participates in sports, especially football, reflects a broad range of qualities, such as strength in both body and mind and possesses characteristically brawniness in grit, determination and bravery.
Football players actively playing football for physical stamina
Playing basketball daily in the morning helped me reduce stress and improve my mood, leading to positive thoughts. Before joining basketball, I was very bloated, and my doctor asked me to reduce my weight, so I joined this game. It requires a lot of Willpower to wake up early in the morning and not to lose heart whenever the coach scolds you. After joining basketball, I found drastic improvements such as reduced obesity, healthy night sleep, increased body flexibility and overcoming my asthma problems. Also, I stopped having restrictions on my diet as I know that I will be able to dissolve all the unwanted fat in my body. This game taught me sportsmanship and ways to practice goal setting.
Engaging youth in art activities such as painting, music, dance, and drama can promote a creative outlet for artistic expression, using mental benefits to communicate and reveal one’s innate desires and satisfy them.
“Dancing and singing together makes me feel content, and all my blues vanish. Both these art forms go hand in hand to rejuvenate my soul and bring inner peace. Dance always keeps me vibrant and energetic,” says Robert, a 15-year-old boy studying in Don Bosco, Egmore.
“It has become a recent trend in schools to isolate art activities from the curriculum. As a school principal, I understand the importance of art or learning a new skill, which has a tremendous influence on adolescents’ lives and a visible, powerful and positive change towards the self and society. Art and being creative proves a subtle connection towards academic subjects, and art acts as a key to children’s development.” says Dr. Prabha, principal of Sacred Heart Mat. Hr. Sec. School, Church Park.
I believe art is an essential part of life, but many people and teenagers fail to perceive beauty. A friend of mine suffered from serious depression after being in an abusive relationship with her boyfriend. She was traumatised and was mentally very shaken in that situation. When she met a therapist, her therapist recommended she not take any medicines but start learning more art forms such as painting, music and dance, and that would redeem her from the tragic past. The therapist also said that time was the best medicine and suggested she paint nature landscapes such as the sunset, the luscious green pastures and cool animal portraits. She could finally forget the toxic memory after 2 years of art therapy. Thus, colours and melody influenced and played an important role in her life.
Paintings provide serenity to both the heart and brain
Guides and Scouts is an excellent co-curricular activity for school-going children. Just by being a part of this organisation, you can take pride in being in a colossal community of 10 million female and male students from over 150 countries. The Bharat Scouts & Guides is a voluntary venture and apolitical educational organisation for young people. The primary purpose is to evoke a sense of community and to do your best.
Ms. Sarojini, leader and commander in ‘The Bharat Scouts & Guides’ community, said, “Being part of this community at a young age, kids will be able to comprehend and develop a better understanding of oneself and others. Kids can also attain organisation skills that guide them to leading positions at work. This non-academic movement motivates and encourages children to submit themselves to society before themselves.”
Logo of Bharat Scouts and Guides
The eye-catching blue uniform, neatly ironed and worn, with a long sash of badges, caught me in this magnificent organisation. All you need to know is to ‘be prepared’ for all endeavours, keep smiling, do your best and leave the rest. I learnt how to survive alone in camps and do all my chores without being dependent on others. Guides also taught me how to be brave and handle situations fearlessly.
Youths who want to be both physically and mentally fit as a fiddle and want to contribute to the nation fervently and also who are fascinated about the border defence forces voluntarily involve themselves in the uniformed service take up NCC (National Cadet Corps) as a co-curricular activity in both school and college.
“NCC is taken as an extra-curricular activity in schools and colleges to expose teenagers to the real world outside books. NCC training is similar to military training, which shapes a kid into a disciplined and responsible citizen of our nation. At the college level, students who enrol in NCC are eligible to write ‘B’ and ‘C’ certificate exams along with extra credits. Cadets with ‘B’ and ‘C’ certificates are entitled to avail incentives from the government and have an added weightage to state government jobs”, says Captain Geetha Kumar, GCI (Girl Cadet Instructor) in 1 TN Girls Battalion, Madras Group A.
Students adopting NCC are likely to be exposed to potential skills such as improvement in character, discipline, courage, secular outlook, spirit of adventure and comradeship. These are the aims of NCC.
Logo of NCC
NCC has given me a wide range of knowledge and the power to discover the world and expand my horizons. Just by being part of this organisation, I gained confidence, balanced all my emotions, came out of my comfort zone and worked the extra mile, developed a good relationship with my batchmates, and voluntarily worked as a team. One time, my seniors forced me to participate in a lecture competition where I had to present a paper to 350 cadets and high-ranked dignitaries. That was my 1st time addressing such a huge crowd, and I was very nervous initially. The minute I took Mike's hand and started to present my paper with only a reference to the PPT I made, I discovered myself and my aptitude for speaking. Also, I could recognise that I did not have any stage fear or nervousness while talking. Rather, I got a free flow of phrases without any fillers. That day, I was very content; at that moment, I was a proud soul on cloud nine.
Pooja, a psychiatrist in a leading hospital, said, “Co-curricular activities will help kids develop as all-rounders. They can express themselves much better, actively participate in extempore speeches and relinquish their barriers. By taking up these activities, they will train to multi-task, mature, and have a successful academic and career life.”
