Necessity of After School Programs

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Necessity of After-School Programs An after-school program refers to a program that operates before and after-school, during the summer, and on school holidays, and provides a variety of enrichment, recreational, social, and academic activities for children ages 5 to 18. After-school activities have been developed for over a century. However, the government did not promote them until the middle of 1990s. Non-formal after-school programs were operated in restricted schools in order to expand learning opportunities for low-income children or immigrant children. Sine after-school programs were not supported by the government, community associations like Boy Scouts of America and YMCA were in charge of most after-school activities. However, after educational standards expectation became stricter, a lot of states considered developing extra learning supports to help children achieve. Simply, early programs were developed partly to help immigrant children to adjust to a new country and learn what it means to be a citizen. Programs today serve not only the children of immigrant families but also general children ages 5 to 12 in the United States. Kweonmin Yi, who graduated from Cedar Park Christian High School as an international student in 2009, is an example of an immigrant who found greater social connection in America through after-school programs. When he was going to school in the United States, Cedar Park Christian High School, he participated in some after-school activities such as varsity track, varsity soccer, and brass band. When he came to the United States for the very first time, he was quite reticent because his English was not enough to keep up a conversation; however, after he joined the after-school activities, his English increased by making American friends through these activities. He stated, “It was a really great opportunity to get along with
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