Extracurricular activities are an indispensable way to cultivate all-round talents, a necessary supplement to classroom teaching and an important part of enriching students' spiritual life.
Extracurricular activities can be divided into on-campus activities and off-campus activities, and the difference between them lies in the difference in organization and guidance. Campus activities are activities led by schools and guided by teachers.
Off-campus activities are activities organized and guided by off-campus educational institutions. It should be noted here that the activities in the school are not limited to the scope of the school, but can also be organized outside the school. The difference between them is only in organization and leadership. Here, we refer to the activities inside and outside the school as extracurricular activities.
In ancient China, extracurricular activities have become a form of education. It is recorded in the Book of Learning: "It is also necessary to teach in a university. You must have a proper job when teaching and a place to live when you retire."
The so-called "proper work" refers to classroom teaching, and "living on campus" refers to activities outside classroom teaching. That is to say, the educated should carry out extracurricular activities related to classroom learning in addition to classroom learning. Only in this way can the educated be "comfortable" and "happy to learn", and can they achieve the goals of "learning is comfortable, teachers love it", "being happy with friends, acting by faith" and "being independent from teachers, not opposing".
With the needs of social development, classroom teaching based on class teaching system has replaced individual teaching. Classroom teaching can cultivate talents on a large scale and meet the requirements of social and production development.
However, it has certain limitations, which is not conducive to proceeding from reality and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and is not conducive to the full development of the personality of the educated. Therefore, as a necessary supplementary form of classroom teaching, extracurricular activities have emerged as the times require, and have been constantly improving and accumulating experience in long-term development and practice, becoming increasingly mature.
Extracurricular activities and classroom teaching are a complete educational system, and extracurricular activities are a necessary supplement to classroom education. They interact and complement each other, and play an equally important role in accomplishing educational tasks and achieving educational goals. It is of great significance to solve the contradiction between the all-round development of the educated and teaching in accordance with their aptitude, general development and special development, and indirect experience and direct experience.
Activity characteristics Although extracurricular activities and classroom teaching are important ways to achieve educational goals, extracurricular activities have their own characteristics because they are different from classroom teaching in terms of activity content, organization form and activity mode.