IntroductionDoes your community have good hard working parents who wonder what their kids are doing after school? Are they safe? Are they getting their homework done? Who are they with? The truth is, many of America's children come home to spend hours of unsupervised time in front of the television or engaging in risky behaviors. Consider the following possible scenarios:
* Yi-Kang is a 12-year-old who walks home from school. On his way he stops at the local convenience store to play video games for two hours before going home. * Maya is an eight-year-old. After school she goes home, where her 13-year-old sister is in charge. They watch talk shows on TV everyday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. * Tom goes to the mall after school to hang out with his buddies. When he became a middle school student he started smoking and chewing tobacco—habits he learned from friends after school.
Now consider what the scenarios could be if these same students had access to good, safe, supervised activities after school:
* Yi-Kang goes to his 4-H cooking club at the after school. He attends a special class at the high school that teaches boys how to cook meals for themselves and their families. * Maya and her sister use after-school hours learning the latest computer programming languages in the computer lab of the middle school. She has her choice of other activities as well, including rehearsing for the next school play, working on homework in the library, or taking an aerobics class. * Tom works on service learning projects after school. His goal is to become a doctor and, through a school-based after-school program, he volunteers at a local clinic. He sees firsthand how concepts he learns in biology are used every day in the medical profession.
After-school programs, which are sometimes referred to as "extended-day" programs, are often operated in school buildings but can also be implemented in other community locations. They can be supported by district, state, or federal funding, or some combination of the three. They may target a specific student population, or be open to all interested participants. And they may or may not be offered every day of the week. This is all to say that variety is the name of the game in discussions of after-school efforts, and that they truly can be as unique as the communities they serve.
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