Stop the ‘Just Pick Two’ slogan 

by Ava Hepokoski

LT is always trying new ways to promote getting involved at school. Whether it’s sports or clubs, administrators have used the phrase “Just Pick Two,” which attempts to encourage students to pick two activities to get involved in while in high school. But this strategy isn’t helping all students, it’s harming some. 

Students who are not involved in a sport at LT are sometimes involved in a club or travel sport outside of school. Said club sports can take up even more time than the sports at school. With the “Just Pick Two policy,” students who are in club sports outside of school may feel pressure to do another sport through LT.  The problem is that in many cases they simply do not have enough time for both. 

There are also many students who have jobs after school and on the weekends, leaving no extra time for extracurricular activities. For example, a student who helps out with their family’s business on weeknights may not have the freedom to stay after school for a club every week. With LT pushing to “Just Pick Two” activities, a significant number of students may end up feeling inadequate about themselves due to a lack of in-school participation. This could cause undue stress and anxiety which could result in poor performance in the classroom—an outcome that nobody wants.

Some students also have to take care of their families. Whether it’s picking up siblings, taking care of a grandparent, or making dinner, these activities and responsibilities not associated with school all take up time. This leaves little to no time for students to “Just Pick Two” activities to do. This results in students having low self esteem because they feel like they aren’t a part of their school since they aren’t following this recommended policy. 

Unfortunately, some students also suffer from poor mental health. They likely have many things going on that they are dealing with in their lives. The last thing they need is for the LT administration to be pushing them to “Just Pick Two” activities.

Also, the abundance of hard classes students may choose to take, results in a large workload of homework and studying each night. Students have little to no extra time after doing all of their homework. This leads to many students not getting involved in a club or sport. 

Lastly, students may simply struggle to find a club or sport that works for them. Even though LT offers more than 100 activities for students, many of them are not promoted well and students may feel nervous and embarrassed to try something new. Many students like to stick at what they already know they can do well, trying to pick up something new can be scary to many students. 

Students are very fortunate to attend a school where there are so many diverse opportunities to grow as students and people. The policy can help students make new friends and learn new activities. The intention is in the right place; however, the collateral damage of lower self esteem and additional undue pressure put on students is an unintended but important consequence to consider. 

Keep Picking Two

by Rachel Kowalski

As students, we all know how hard it is to make new friends in a school as large as LT. I’m sure we all can remember walking into SC on the first day of freshman year feeling intimidated, scared, or alone. Luckily, with LT’s “Just Pick Two” mindset, all of us students are given a chance to make new friends and find clubs that we love. 

There’s no doubting the abundance of clubs that are offered here. Whether it’s Archery Club or Best Buddies, there’s at least a couple of clubs that spark every student’s interest. By joining two of these clubs, students are given the opportunity to create new friendships and connections with their peers. Clubs also open up opportunities for students to become friends with upper or lowerclassmen that they wouldn’t have been able to meet without them.

For me, joining clubs throughout my high school career has given me something to look forward to after school every week. Whether it’s going to meetings for Older Adult Connections every other Wednesday or Student Council meetings every Wednesday night, I always feel connected to the other club members and sponsors. The meetings have given me an opportunity to meet with friends who I would never see during the school day. These clubs are an easy escape during the school week.

It’s so important that LT promotes the “Just Pick Two” mindset because of the surplus of benefits of joining two clubs or sports. Research done by The Princeton Review shows that participation in clubs can improve your communication skills, allow creative thinking, and teach you how to work effectively with other people. These skills developed through extracurriculars can help students outside of school. They can help students develop leadership skills or allow them to give back to their community. Clubs can help you to find your interests and use that to develop a bright future ahead of you. 

When students are told to join at least two extracurricular activities at LT, they often ask, “What about the time commitment?” Or they say, “I don’t have the time to go to every club meeting.” Luckily, many of these clubs are very low commitment. Every sponsor or leader in each club understands that many people have other commitments going on outside of school, so they know that not every member will have the time or ability to attend every meeting. 

Also, many clubs have very short meetings or only host meetings once every other week to allow students to attend when they find time to participate. Nobody will scold you or be angry with you for not attending a meeting; they’re just happy to have you when they can. 

The “Just Pick Two” mindset is a clever way to promote a sense of belonging in school and in the community. Joining extracurricular activities means improving your participation within the school which allows for an overall better experience. Going forward, I hope that all students will have this mindset when given the opportunity to join extracurricular activities.