Foreword Suppose that some gigantic misfortune struck, and all athletic and nonathletic pupil activities in American high schools were abolished forthwith. Horrifying as this idea might be to secondary school youth, teachers, and professional leaders, the inevitable result of such a stroke would mean that the high school as we know it today would practically cease to exist. This is another way of stating the importance of extraclass activities to our current high-school program. They are not merely important, but essential. The approaching extension of secondary schooling to all normal youth of high-school age and the need for the constructive development of their civic, social, ethical, and recreational attitudes and competencies require that teachers and principals expand their efforts to provide adequate extraclass activities for ALL young people under their guidance. The "all" is important, because every high-school boy and girl regardless of social, economic, or scholastic status should have the opportunity to participate in activities. This publication deals with the organization, administration, supervision, and evaluation of extra-class activities in secondary schools. It attempts to give some answers to the question, How may the high school perfect the organization, coordination, and evaluation of its extraclass activities program? Limitation of space has made necessary a selective approach to the topic. Consequently, certain aspects of the extraclass activities, notably budget and finance, organization of out-of-school activities, and public relations, have received less attention than they might otherwise deserve. Listed on the inside back cover are the names of the high schools that supplied our Office with descriptive or statistical data for this bulletin. We are grateful to the principals and staffs of these schools, whose cooperation was so willingly and generously given. 123 36789 39 1. ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC HIGH-SCHOOL GRADES, BY SEX, FOR 10-YEAR intervals, 1910 to 1940_ 2. OFFERINGS IN PUPIL ATHLETIC AND NONATHLETIC ACTIVITIES IN APPLETON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL AT SPECIFIED INTERVALS, 1925 TO 1950 3. EXTRACLASS ACTIVITIES SCORE SHEET AT JOLIET TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL, BY SPECIFIED INTERVALS, 1920 to 1949_. 8 10 16 4. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF ACTIVITY-PERIOD TYPE OF ORGANIZATION, AS REPORTED BY 42 SELECTED HIGH SCHOOLS__. 22 5. STATISTICAL SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES AT HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL_ 35 6. PERCENT OF PUPIL PARTICIPATION IN THE HIGH-SCHOOL CLUB PROGRAM, BY YEAR_ 37 Introduction THERE HERE once was a time when children and youth performed chores during their spare time. If they lived on a farm, they may have fed the chickens, split firewood, watered the horses, brought home the cows, or performed a hundred odd tasks that needed to be done. In the village or city, they may have chopped wood, fetched a scuttle of coal for the kitchen stove, helped with housework, or taken care of the smaller children, and so forth. The great majority of youth no longer have such chores. Our mechanized home and farm appliances have done away with many of them. The old-fashioned icebox, the wood or coal stove, the oil lamps, the carpet sweeper, the horses and buggies have become glistening, streamlined, automatic contraptions in and around almost every American home. The result is that not only youth, but parents too, may have time on their hands. So in their spare time they listen to the radio or watch the television set, go to the moving pictures, read the newspapers or magazines, ride around in the family car, or get fidgety. Unselective use of these activities, everyone agrees, is a sign of our times. Parents may say that they had chores to do when they were growing up, but their children are usually unimpressed by such comments. Actually our industrialized form of living offers few meaningful opportunities for chores. Today's youth occupies its spare time in a variety of socializing, recreational, athletic, hobby, and spectator activities provided to some extent by the home, but to a greater degree by the school, church, YMCA and YWCA, Boy or Girl Scouts, recreation center, theater, luncheonette, and drug store. Whereas formerly chores were closely allied with the home, many leisure-time activities of youth now tend to be less closely related to the home. For this reason the high school is in a strategic position to offer youth an effective program of spare-time and self-improvement activities. Where the high school fails to do this, its youth may bypass it to satisfy their activity needs elsewhere. The high school cannot afford to ignore its potential leadership in this field. Yet it must adapt itself to the sociological changes in our culture. It must meet the activity needs of youth. That is why extraclass activities for ALL pupils is a necessary plank in the curricular platform of every American high school. |