Driving by the high school on a Saturday in August, I can see the color guard practicing and the girl’s soccer team playing a match.

As my own kids begin to wade into the water of high school curriculars, I’m starting to wonder just how extra these activities genuinely are.

Sport teams always practice and compete outside of school hours, of course. But band does both. Especially when marching is expected (if not required).

If something is expected, is it truly extra?

Education beyond high school has huge benefits for individuals and the community. Outcomes for those with just some college or trade schools is way beyond those whose education ends with high school.

This has zero to do with rights or suitability for higher education. It is one hundred percent related to what jobs yield what incomes and what education makes people more prepared to do those jobs.

So it is a smart federal priority to encourage education beyond high school. Local schools have the same priority. Because it serves both the student and the community to do precisely that. Education is a social and economic value to the community.

And everyone knows that colleges love extra-curricular activities. While technically optional, doing something outside of school is expected. Students on a college track don’t feel like this stuff is optional. Parents don’t feel like this is optional. Educators don’t feel like this is optional.

We all know all students have to do something. It doesn’t matter if it is technically optional if none of the people involved actually feel like it is.

There is nothing extra about this. It feels quite curricular.

Outside of class

When I entered high school in the 1990s, I was required to be in marching band. Anyone who took band was required to march (with only a few exceptions).

I don’t remember exactly how it all worked, but I do remember practicing before summer break was over. I also remember taking class time to practice marching. Our teacher made it clear we had no choice about this at all.

We marched at football games, playing in the stands and at halftime. We also marched in parades, which always took place outside of school.

I certainly chose to be in band (though I quit after my freshman year). But none of what goes along with band is optional. And all of this was on top of the regular homework we had of practicing our instrument. Which means:

Extra-Curriculars are Extra Homework

And the research around homework is mixed. It seems like a little homework is a positive for most students. But the evidence probably doesn’t even demonstrate that.

But a lot of homework definitely has negative outcomes. And really any homework has proven to have a negative impact on those with learning difficulties.

And then, on top of all of that, there is what teenagers actually need. What is most needed above all things is more time.

Teenagers need more sleep than anyone else. They experience dramatic physical and intellectual growth spurts. And their brains are hardwired to socialize. They need more unstructured social time than any other age group.

So we send them to school early and then to highly-structured after-school practices and now Saturdays, too. In addition to that, we give them hours of homework.

When can they be social? Where is there any unstructured time? And when can they do the things they want to do? A few hours on Saturday? Oh wait—there’s still the homework!

My new high schooler spent her first weekend home doing hours of reading and note-taking on both Saturday and Sunday.

This is a system that we’ve built.

It doesn’t match our priorities or how the teenage brain works. And there is virtually no evidence the system as it is leads to a net benefit at all.

But first we have to admit that nothing about these curriculars are extra. It is written into the code. Then we might be able to admit they truly are extra.

And we may finally realize we don’t need it to be this way.