The extracurricular activities in US schools are so cool!

[SoberNomad]

We currently have a German exchange student who will be going back home in about 2 weeks. He was shocked that schools had sports and it was such a big deal, especially universities!

[philh]

Yes, sports dominate educational prioritization and budgets here in the US. Does the tax levy to build 2 new classrooms or buy 100 new laptops pass? Nope, but the $50, 000, 000 tax levy for a new football stadium does.

[russlockard]

After hosting international students, I'm convinced that our obsession with sports is the reason our educational system is a vast failure. Our European students had to take remedial classes when they returned to their home country in order to catch up.

[raymacdhomhnuill]

FYI The sports team coaches in the USA elementary (grades1-5), Middle school (6-8), and high school (grades 9-12) are the physical education teachers... it is typically made a part of their job description and salary..

Colleges and universities hire coaches as a seperate and full time paid position usually seperate from their physical education teachers.

[marajade]

Teachers in Germany (though the general wages are pretty good) hardly get paid for doing extracurricular clubs. If you're lucky, you'll get a reduction of 1 regular lesson per week for doing the theatre club, which isn't anywhere close to how much work you put in. If you're unlucky, all you get is a "wet handshake", as we say in Germany (=gratitude, but nothing else), from your principal. So please be aware that your teachers in Germany might be doing your clubs for free, just from the goodness of their hearts!

There just isn't much budget for extracurriculars in the German school system. Whenever there is a shortage of teachers, clubs are going to be the first things that are going to be cancelled, because they're considered "nice to have", but not essential.

[Blixthand]

Extra curricular activités like these are super rare for schools to organize in Sweden. Some schools share their gym halls and football field with external clubs that can use them in the evening, or the municipality who owns the school also owns the gym and sets it aside for school use during the day and rent it out to clubs in the evening, but the school is usually not involved. Some schools have special programs, my sister went to a school that had a drama program, which ment that one of their scheduled free study hours were a drama class instead, and my cousin went to a music school that have extra music classes on the schedule and performances at venues throughout the year, but then that entire school was a music school, it didn't have any other focus subject.

[saraht]

i had a whole conversation with one of my colleagues about this recently. how in the u.s. it's important to be a "well-rounded student" who volunteers, does clubs, plays a sport, and has decent grades when applying for college. she said that universities don't care about that here, just grades and exam scores. i think there's trade offs for both philosophies.

[alexanderbrenneke]

I like the American system for high school and elementary because it makes it easier for everyone to participate. But once you get into college it seems too often people go just to play sports and not for school itself. I feel like going to college or getting a schoolarship for anything other than academics just doesnt make sense.

[jann.gottorfgottorf]

In Germany their ist instead a verry strong Club cultur The "Verein" is Center of those activities ! Their are over 600.000 Vereine in Germany for example their are over 24 000 Fußballvereine (Soccer Clubs ) in Germany with over 7.4 Million members in 2024!

[WW-wftu]

Back in my day, it definitely depended on which school you went too. I was in the wrong district to go to a big time HS that had MANY more options for extracurricular activities that my tiny little school did not have. I was very saddened by this fact. Only way in to the choice HS's is if you lived in the district in which the school was located. Otherwise, you were SOL.

[raistormrs]

our schools are for learning, for things like sports, we have clubs and they have long traditions. the oldest still active sports club in the world is a german club, the "Hamburger Turnerschaft" founded in 1816. for perspective, it's older than Mississippi being a state.

[williberthahn]

I was 15 when I came to Germany from Canada and was very surprised when I saw the naked tiny schoolyard.

[TheSteve]

In Germany they have the school techno club team. Leather jeans, muscle shirt, and dog collar is standard issue uniform 🤣

[johnjdumas]

It would be appropriate for schools to have Science, math, and debate (logic) clubs. And really good to have a (life skills) tax, real estate, nutrition, credit, economics, social skills, and other classes maybe one video a week with a short quiz.

[StephanCalvert]

American schools look to educate in more areas just the traditional subjects. Areas that students can enjoy for decades after their school years have ended. While I took piano, school offered me a chance to use that skill as an accompanist for school choir. Unfortunately so many of these specialties have been removed because of budget cuts.

[lindaw]

I wish our schools focused more on the education and left extra curriculum to outside entities. It’s nuts how much my taxes go into a new football field or a tennis court and the teachers pay when we had kids failing, high schoolers who can’t put together a coherent sentence and attendance has become so huge that the state has had to step in to make systems accountable and start prosecuting parents for truancy.

[avres]

It’s a good way to get a scholarship too

[kevenlindstrom]

This is one of the things my wife who is also from München loves so much about the U.S. she always says she wishes she could’ve had the opportunity to play sports in school and not have to join a club in order to do so.

[kristalpower]

When I was an exchange student in Germany, I lived near Hannover and went to a Gymnasium. Not long after I arrived my host mum who was a drama and maybe English or German teacher ran the drama club took she brought me to a special week long camp for drama, choir and band students. She had me join choir which I didn’t mind because I liked to sing and there were some songs they were singing in English which made it less daunting since at that time I had limited German. They referred to it as Choir AG but was never sure what the AG part meant. I also didn’t ask.

I assumed it was normal in Germany and liked that it was at school because it was easier for my to access. My host mum also paid for me to join a hip hop dance class which was fun. I noticed a large interest in hip hop music and culture in Germany particularly in Berlin. It was something I wasn’t expecting. My grandparents had left Germany in the 1960’s and the only music I had heard was German folk music, 99 Luft Ballons and Rammstein.

Lots of people played soccer and I spend some time watching one host sister play tennis. Sports seemed to be significant to my peers and many engaged in a variety of activities. It seems in the US kids find their one activity and dedicate all their free time to it and don’t often get yo explore other things.

[hcap]

Was das angeht im amerikanischen schulsystem wäre ich gerne dort gewesen ich glaube wenn ich von Anfang an eine schulband auf so hohem Level gehabt hätte wie es teilweise in Amerika gibt, hätte ich so viel mehr erreichen können das ist echt krass und das zeigt dass das nicht nur in den Filmen so ist