The Organization Kid

[wrightwilliams]

David Brook's "The Organization Kid" presents an issue that's been around for a while now. Students are pressured to do everything they possibly can on any given day. The major colleges are looking for students who can do it all. They want kids who do fine arts, athletics, are involved in their community, and all while maintaining a perfect grade point average. A school's desire for "high-character, well-rounded students" creates the exact opposite. While all of the extra-curriculars are helpful and healthy, doing too many can be unhealthy socially. Once of the most important components of a developing student is social interation. Without the ability to communicate and socialize with others, good grades and resumes are going to have a tough time picking up the slack.

So much of life is about being able to talk to people. You could be the most "well-rounded" and smartest person in the world. But without the ability to relate and talk to others it won't guarantee success on its own. Jobs that pay a lot of money tend to have the pick of the litter when it comes to choosing someone to fill a positon. Seemingly all of the potential employees are well-rounded and smart. The difference is often whether or not the potential boss likes you or not. Given the choice between two smart, well-rounded businessmen, lawyers, or doctors, the person hiring is going to tend to pick the person who best interacts with other people and is fun to be around. When students neglect social interaction in order to progress their future careers they lose one of the most valuable real-world skills.

You're going to have to deal with people the rest of your life. 20 years from now no one cares how many extra curriculars you did in high school, or how many nights you stayed up to study because you had three different extra-curriculars taking up the rest of the day. What matters is how you're able to talk and work with other people. And those skills are mainly refined in High School in College.

Extracurriculars and hard work aren't supposed to completely neglected in favor socializing however. It is important to work hard and participate in sports and fine arts and community service. You just have to keep it in perspective and make sure these activities aren't completely dominating your schedule and keeping you from having a normal life. Once the balance between having a normal social experience and working hard in school is reached, oppurtunities for success and progression should be a lot more accessible. As with pretty much everything, the perfect position is in between two extremes, while not succumbing fully to either.

[megancoleman]

Wright, you make an excellent point and I agree with you, people need to be more well rounded when it comes to talking to people and interacting with people. However I believe that extracurriculars do help with the socializing aspect of being able to interact with people. As students we do feel so much pressure to be part of so many things and excel at every thing we do, whether school or sports we must succeed or it does not matter if we participated or not. Well rounded I don't think means doing every thing, I think it means doing some of each of the important things and learning from them, like learning to speak in forensics, or learning to play on a team and be a good sport from soccer, or being apart of a bigger sound and making music for people to enjoy. To be well rounded also can mean being social and having social skills and not being the awkward kid in the back. Like Wright said, the choices between two completely qualified individuals may eventually come down to who also has more people skills. Doing it all does not make someone well rounded, its what you get out of the activities and how they affect you as a person.

[joeweston]

Mr. Williams, you do an excellent job of crystallizing the theme in "The Organization Kid" of our extracurricular over stretching. For a class that's stuffed to the gills with skillful orators, academic champs, star athletes, and gifted musicians this is certainly a vital lesson to be gleaned from the Brooks essay. Moreover, I applaud your extension from the essay on to the need for good communication and interpersonal skills.

What I would have liked to see more of from the original text is the focus the article puts on the morality of organization kids. The constant running between activities is certainly their hallmark, but the thing that struck me most from the article was David Brooks' fears that our hyperactive engagements diminish our ability to contemplate deep ethical questions. You demonstrated an analytical ability already. Perhaps you could apply it to this worrisome trend as well.

[dylantooflycrow]

Mr. Wright, you are very right. Students are now more than ever pressured to join extracurriculars activities along with their school work which often leads to little free time to socialize outside of those extracurriculars. However, I must also agree with Joe and Megan. Joe brings up a good point which I wrote about in my essay and feel very strongly about. The loss of free time, and extreme amount of rush in these students’ lives, is cause for a lack of creativity, deep thought, and understanding of their surroundings. I believe it was said in the article that many of these “Organized Kids” can not find time to decide where they stand in the political aspects of the country, which are they very much apart of, being over 18 and all. They have a responsibility to vote and participate in society. Megan also brings up a good point, that extracurriculars are important in finding time and place to meet new people and engage in social interaction, which you so clearly stated as an important aspect of a developing student and on which I also agree with you. Therefore, I believe in a strong balance of extracurriculars and free time, in becoming a well-rounded and socially-able student.

[jacobwinkler]

Mr. Wrighlliams, I couldn't agree with your post more! As a victim of the strenuous pressure to take part in every sport known to man, and then put hours of time into these activities just to grow old and make little use of the effort put in, other than the obvious physical and social benefits. I feel as though too often, children are coerced into taking part in sports and other extracurriculars by their peers and parents. It's unfortunate that society has become this way. If we were allowed to choose what we wanted to do more often while we were young, we would be much better people. If the structured lifestyles are broken down, suddenly we are able to breath. So much pressure would be relieved. I speak from experience. In middle school, I played every sport under the sun. I actively skateboarded, played soccer, baseball, and basketball. I thought it was pretty cool. However, once I got to high school I narrowed it down to just soccer. Suddenly everything was so much simpler. I was able to dedicate hours of time into soccer with my new free time, and not because I was forced to, but because it was what I wanted. Now I find myself focusing even more on my true passion. Computers! With soccer coming to a close, I'm glad that I am able to play and am having a blast, but I'm also livid at the sight of the finish line. A finish line dowsed with computers.