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Profile of Student Attitudes subsections -
Classes / Activities / Community participation / College plans / Tolerance and Knowledge of First Amendment / Student - Teacher - Principal - Adult differences / Freedom of speech / Freedom of press / First Amendment education /
Understanding of the Law / Trust in journalists / Sources of news

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Profile of Student Activities

Activities:  

Nearly all principals (99 percent) and teachers (97 percent) surveyed feel that it is important for ALL students to participate in some extracurricular activities or clubs. However, over a quarter (27 percent) of the high school students surveyed say they do not spend any time during an average week participating in extracurricular activities. On the other hand, the majority of students (73 percent) do spend some time participating in various extracurricular activities. And a full majority (56 percent) of students say they spend between one and 15 hours engaging in such activities during an average week.

Extracurricular activities -- average hours per week

Students participate in a wide variety of clubs and activities ranging from sports to performance arts to school newspapers. However, when it comes to extracurricular activities, sports are the clear favorite among high school students; in fact, sports are the only activities in which the majority (57 percent) of all students participate. Many students (38 percent) participate in performance arts activities and considerably fewer participate in student government (15 percent) or debate/speech (11 percent).

Participation in extracurricular activities

By contrast, when it comes to media-related extracurricular activities, a fairly low percentage of students participate. Higher percentages (ranging from 17 and 32 percent depending on the activity) say they would like to participate if the activity eventually became available at their school. Access to media-related activities is more scarce than it is for many other activities. Whereas nearly all high schools offer some type of sports program, fewer offer media-related activities.

Participation in media-related extracurricular activities

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