Adventurer calls for compulsory extra-curricular activities for young people to get out of ‘death loop’ of sitting in bedrooms
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/make-extra-curricular-activities-compulsory-adventurer-5HjdjjB_2/
Posted by tylerthe-theatre
30 Comments
I think he has a point that we should make these extra-curriculars but he’s too old and out of touch to realise what the reality is nowadays.
Back then you could get some cheapish boots and hiking gear, go wherever you want for essentially free. All these landmarks and sight seeing points were undeveloped and free.
Nowadays, the world is out to nickle and dime you at any point from exorbitant hiking/travelling gear to advanced booking and £20 tickets to see most things.
I think in addition to making it compulsory, you’d have to introduce massive subsidies for these kids to make it reasonable.
I don’t wholly disagree with the point he’s making but “people should be forced to do the thing I like, after all I like it” is a bit narrow minded.
State schools and parents of those kids can’t afford outdoor adventure activities. That’s the WHOLE point. Private schools have loads of adventure holidays and activities,which is great. But state schools do the bare minimum (and i don’t mean the struggling underpaid teachers) they are failing kids on basic stuff like reading and writing. The system is working exactly as planned, screwing over the people at the bottom, whilst those atop the pile continue to dodge tax, steal wages and promise us 3 day working weeks when robots arrive. I’m so sick of it all.
When you have limitless free time and funds, it’s easy to say these things.
It doesn’t mean that the sentiment doesn’t have merit, but it requires time and resources from parents who are barely making ends meet, and especially so when considering the kids that this most affects.
When parents have absolutely nothing, the kids will also.
I am condident that there wouldn’t be so many mountain rescue call outs at the moment had many of the rescuees been dragged up the hills as a teenager and found that they got wet etc. Too many people trying the hills have no previous experience or knowledge and we can try to put that right by giving them various opportunities when younger.
As I remember, schools used to have playing fields where they could do such activities. Schools also had access to local swimming pools to encourage everyone to swim too, but that was before my time.
The whole point of indoors is that it’s more economically realistic and it’s how you manage your budget.
providing free places outdoors they can be that are safe and enjoyable might also work, just need to get people away from pearl clutching at teens congregating in a location and assuming they’re going to do crime
Or parents could be parents and not give them smart devices to double as baby sitters when they are growing up. The main difference between the generations was that we got a lot more outdoor time.
As someone who has spent far too much time gaming and doom scrolling, I completely agree. The school trips where you did something outside were great but too rare.
Sure, forcing people to do things always helps them feel better. Maybe, instead, we should, I don’t know, improve society somewhat?
“Wealthy guy complains that poor people dont share his interests. More after the break”
[This guy is a glue tycoon who thinks we should abolish inheritance tax.](https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/meandmymoney/article-12473161/Explorer-Sir-David-Hempleman-Adams-talks-MONEY.html)
I’d love it if we could get younger people out the house, or have arts and drama classes in school again. But a decision has been made to gut education funding. I understand rich people saying ‘We should make teens do Duke of Edinburgh,’ or even just older people in general saying it. Austerity demands we don’t do that, young people are stripped of any opportunity by successive government constantly refusing to spend anything.
Hiking is free
People are just lazy
Government cannot legislative for everything,people need to take personal responsibility.
Few weeks ago we did a hike on the white cliffs of Dover . Cost £5 in parking I think ,might be £6 not sure but it was less than £10.00
It was absolutely amazing, all for less than £10.00.
Lots of country parks in the UK that people can go walking and it’s free .
People are just lazy . You can’t legislate away laziness
Why should someone be forced to do things irrelevant to them because someone they don’t know thinks it’s beneficial.
A bunch of these outdoor activities would not have appealed to me as a kid. The thing that killed all my confidence was shit schools and rubbish teachers – fix that stuff first before forcing kids to do extra curricular activities on top of studying and homework.
We did Duke of Edinburgh which included a group expedition over a few days (well, we came back to the same campsite). That could still work today, and would be even safer with them having their phones.
Various youtubers do things where they’re dropped somewhere random and have to navigate to a certain place doing various tasks along the way. Get the kids to do that, with GPS on for the organisers to look out for them and they can vlog themselves. Make a treasure hunt or something.
The phones don’t need to be fancy, so they could be loaned some cheap ones. Needs GPS, some tracker app, phone and video.
In contrary to a lot of these comments I would argue that whilst there are not many free opportunities outside of education, schools (and later Uni) provide a brilliant opportunity to take part in free activities – in the past I enjoyed the opportunity to do many sports. Now at university I also have the chance to write for the student news paper, take part in the radio and cheap social sports
Yo! It’s not cool to like go walking in parks n hills, innit! Fam. Its for dose white old n racist people to be like do dat kinda tings like yoga,tree ugging,flower sniffing tings n taking pics of hills n dis n dat. Innit!
Is extra curricular not compulsory after school? For example drama club, debate club, chess club, football club etc?
It doesn’t even need to be compulsory if it’s free and the default with an opt out. kids don’t want to be seen as a swat and don’t want to do these things if their friends aren’t or if they have to have a difficult conversation with their parents about it. Remove the barriers to entry and it’ll happen without the whole compulsory bit.
Id support a public funded weekly coupon for young people which they can spend on local sports / activities. Supports local businesses too.
I agree with the idea that schools should have compulsory extra-curriculars (of course these would have to be paid for by the school and by extension the government). But there should be a variety and the students should have the choice for which they join,
This thread is full of the kind of advice that gets children killed
I agree with this in theory however where is the additional funds for this to be done who can’t afford additional activities for their children.
Compulsory for everyone… Then that award becomes a bit worthless doesn’t it.
It’s not something you chose to do and achieve, it’s transformed into yet another check box on an exhaustive list for them to measure themselves against and potentially fail on.
It’s also no longer extra curricular , and when schools have spent decades squeezing out all but what they get measured against, pe the humanities, art, cooking, even things like play time has been gradually nibbled away.
Where exactly is it going to go?
Because if it’s done outside of school all you do is force the logistics, time, and effort, for getting the kid to to complete this tick box, on parents who may have have the time, money, or energy to support their kid doing this.
I’m not going to say he doesn’t have a sliver of a point, he does, but this is another case of a much older generation looking for a quick simple solution, without understanding the environment, culture or circumstances which now exist.
Like the ones screaming to bring back national service every so often.
As an indoorsy person, I would have rather died than be forced into a hike. But I do think there are merits to compulsory extra curriculars and outdoor time.
My child’s secondary school extended the school day for three days a week, and in the extra time each child has to take two extracurricular activities – which includes everything from sports, taking care of guinea pigs, first aid, prop making, weird history and building Lego. It doesn’t cost us anything and because it’s a compulsory part of the school day transport is aligned so nobody misses out. I think this is brilliant and wish there was a way this could be done everywhere without burning out teachers.
The school is rural and also has a fantastic nature reserve on the grounds and does lots of outdoor activities and gardening and offers camping for the pupils. They get such a lot from just having the decent outdoor space, let alone the chances to get their hands dirty and have some freedom. My high school was on public land so we couldn’t even go on the grass outside at break times. I know all the reasons it’s not realistic but a usable outdoor space should be as important for a school as classrooms.
It seems to me that Duke of Edinburgh is not much more popular than it was, it’s supported regularly by state schools near me, which is an improvement since I was a kid. Perhaps just getting kids out onto the country isn’t enough. What are the stats here.
I still think we should turn off the internet every Sunday. It would help in countless ways.
Is it better to have lots of kids who want to do DofE volunteer to do it, or make it compulsory?
Because then if you go Bronze in Y10, Silver in Y12 and Gold in Y13 you’re losing weeks to expeditions getting classes through them.
Plus you lost people who don’t go to Sixth Form.
Not sure what the numbers are for DofE but in school trips IIRC it’s 1 staff member to every 10 students. You get 250 – 300 people through Bronze across the year and you now have to take 25 – 30 staff out on trips in total.
That’s assuming you can find a high number of staff who want to go off to the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands or Snowdonia for a few days.
Easy for someone to say “should be compulsory” but the logistics of what schools would then *have* to do is rarely considered.
Valid argument, albeit an unrealistic one. The issue starts with the parents, not necessarily the young. Parents are the ones who condition their children to do the activities they do. It’s the same argument with healthy eating, et cetera. The habits and hobbies of children are ultimately cast by those around them, not necessarily by themselves.
For once the Americans have it right. There’s a massive emphasis on school sports and extra-curriculars over there.
We had the school football team, and that was basically it.