[crazytaxidriver]

I said its a much needed thing lol
i just dont think the school influences extra circular activites much anymore

I agree. Academics are the most important thing. But kids will get burned out in school if they have nothing to do but study. That leads to more kids not wanting to go to college and continue their education. With sports, this takes some stress away from your studies, and let's ya live a little. But schools anymore are just worried about the CATS test and all that just to make the school look good. I mean if you go to a ballgame in the mountains you hardly ever see fans actually rooting for the team. Granted you got places like Pikeville and Belfry who almost always have an awesome fan turnout. But at Pike Central, SV, and ER, the away fan base isn't that great. And at the middle school games there may be just about 20-30 ppl show up for both sides, and that is mostly the parents.
School spirit isn't really in the schools anymore, because from what I have heard it's illegal to have a pep rally, and that's one of the many things schools can do to pep the fans up. But when you take these things out, the fan base dies out. When that goes, less people want to play, when that happens the school starts to do bad at the sport which then leads to the sport dissappearing from the school, which then leads to less kids at the school due to nothing fun.

Academics are important in the long run for the student. However, if you want a student to actually excel in life, then give the student more things to do. School should be about having fun, and learning lessons of life. These are things that can't really be taught in a classroom. No one can teach a kid how to make friends, he has to learn it by hisself, and that is where the extra curricular activities come in.