Are Grades Everything?

People always say that grades are everything, however, this is not neccesarily true. Grades are very important but extracurricular activities are also important. Someone with near perfect grades and no extracurricular activities could be denied from a college compared to someone else who has lower grades but are involved in many different activities outside of school getting in. Of course this doesn't mean that that just because you are involved in many things outside of school but your grades are bad, that you're gonna get into a top college. I'm not denying that grades are important as they still have to be good. But they are not everything. Colleges and schools look for something that seperates you from everyone else, something makes you unique. People who just go to school, go home and then rinse and repeat everyday is not considered unique to them. They look for someone who is involved in clubs and activities. Being involved in clubs and sports also demonstrates good social and leadership skills since they often involve working with a group and sometimes you may have to lead them which is important for schools and colleges.

With all of this in mind though, you shouldn't being faking things. Some people get involved in activities they have no interest in just so that they can have extracurricular activities. However, they shouldn't do that. There are a lot of different options for activities to particpate in. All you have to do is simply pick something that you're actually interested in. It could range from sports to music to voluntering somewhere. Really, anything works. One thing to note though is that it is much better to be committed to a few activites rather than briefly participate in multiple activites. Being committed to one or two clubs shows you really care for it and that you excel at whatever it is the club is about rather than if you were to go from one club to another which shows you don't really care about the things you are doing and that you only have very brief and minor experinces with those particular activities. In the end though, grades are not everything but the same could be said about extracurricular activities as well. It is a balance of the two and you have to find the right balance that works for you.  

Is Homework Is Neccessary?

Everyday I hear some people complaining and saying that students should not have homework. After all, homework is considered a way to practice what you learned in class so why not just practice it during class instead of at home? The thing is, teachers only have a limited amount of time to teach students and so if they spend time reviewing the old material during class, we won't be able to get to the new material. This is similiar to what my math teacher said once in that he's not one to spend a lot of time going over homework during class since he doesn't want to be one of those teachers that spend a lot of time going over it only to not have enough time to learn the new lesson and yet still assign homework for the new lesson. If we review during class, then we might not have enough time to proceed on to the next lesson. We would have to learn the new material at home in order to make sure we are not behind and thus, we are back at square one since we still have homework. In order to make sure that the students understand the past material before moving on to the next, teachers assign homework and so because of all of this, I personally belive homework is neccessary.

Not only this, but homework also teaches responsibility later on in life. When you are working, if your boss tells you to do something before a certain time, you have to do it and you can't just be like, "Oh I don't want to do it so I won't." or else you will get fired. Homework prepares you for this in a sense since your teacher is your "boss." People complain about staying up all night doing homework but they stay up all night playing games. Yes, homework interferes with your social life but in my opinion, I don't belive the amount of homework is as huge as everyone makes it out to be. I'm in athletics and I still have enough time to finish it all. Not to mention, I'm not trying to brag or anything but I'm also in mostly advanced classes since I know the level of the class also affects the amount of homework given. And even after all the homework, I still have a little bit of free time. In the end, I believe homework is neccessary in order to make sure you understand what you are learning since it's very easy to simply not pay attention during class and not understand. And as for the amount of homework, maybe it's just me, but I don't think the amount is as crazy as everyone is saying.