Bob Chase has explained that people should worry less about the A student with a few friends and more about the C student who engages in a lot of extracurricular activities. One of the reasons for this argument is that the economy of the world at this time is highly dependent on technology, research and innovation which are mainly achieved by people of high intellectuality. When people earn good grades in class, it means that they are intellectual and they can innovate and come up with solutions to the problems facing our economy. On the contrary, students with low grades exhibit low intellectuality and may not be able to offer solutions to the problems affecting our economy. I disagree with this argument. This essay argues that we should worry more about the A student who has a few friends than a C student who participates in a lot of extra-curricular activities because extracurricular and social activities improve the soft skills, health and creativity of students which are even more important at the modern workplace than the level of intellectuality.
The A students who have only a few friends are likely to lack teamwork skills that are needed to solve most of the problems facing organizations and societies in the modern world. As the economic and business environment of the world become complex and competitive, organizations and societies need to develop appropriate strategies and approaches to solve problems facing them (Roberts 2010). Working in teams has proved to be one of the most effective mechanisms of solving such problems. When people come together and share ideas, they are able to come up with solutions more effectively than when they work individually because more ideas are put into the problem solving process. If one person’s ideas are limited by a certain problem, other people’s ideas will help solve it. The C student who participates in extra-curricular activities has more friends, and can socialize well with people; hence developing social and teamwork skills. In this regard, the C student will be able to work in teams more effectively to solve problems affecting organizations and societies.
Participating in extracurricular activities also leads to development of ideas that result in the best innovations; hence the C student can become more useful than the A student in terms of product and service development and creativity. For example, Mark Zukerberg the founder of Facebook, the largest social media network, did not complete his University studies. What led to the successful development of Facebook was his enthusiasm in extracurricular activities. He was more focused in student collaboration and socialization than attaining high grades. Another example is the founder of Honda. Honda was interested more in extracurricular activities (racing) than grades. This led him to develop racing motorcycles that later resulted in the famous Honda Company. The C students who engage in extracurricular activities understand their environment better than the A students. Therefore, the C students become more creative and become sources of the best and leading innovations and products.
The C student with an active extracurricular life also exercises, becomes healthier and performs better at work than the A students with just a few friends and less active extracurricular life. Extracurricular activities keep students fit and healthy so that they can work more effectively in the society to earn a living for themselves and for the society (Mahoney et al 2005). A healthy society is more productive than an unhealthy society because the productivity of healthy people is higher than the productivity of unhealthy people at the workplace. People who do a lot of exercises also have better memories and better thinking capacities to enable them work in environments with a lot of pressure. In this case, we should worry less about the C student because he or she has more productive capacity than the A student who does not participate in extracurricular activities.
Indeed, the society should worry less about the C students with active extracurricular activities than the A student who has two or three friends because the C student contributes more to the economy and the society than the A student. The C students with active extracurricular lives have good teamwork skills, healthier lives, and higher innovativeness and creativity. Good teamwork skills enable them to perform better in teams and solve key economic and social problems. Extracurricular activities also encourage more exercises, healthier lives and higher productivity. Therefore, we should worry less about the A student who has a few friends than a C student who participates in a lot of extra-curricular activities because extracurricular and social activities improve the soft skills, health, creativity, innovativeness and productivity of students. These aspects are even more important at the modern workplace than the level of intellectuality.
Works cited
Mahoney, Joseph L, Reed Larson, and Jacquelynne S. Eccles. Organized Activities As Contexts of Development: Extracurricular Activities, After-School, and Community Programs. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005. Print.
Roberts, Andrew L. The Thinking Student’s Guide to College: 75 Tips for Getting a Better Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print.
