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The tendency to instill a need for activities outside of school is strong in many parents for many reasons. To build self esteem, skills, preparedness for the future, and in some cases just to keep them busy.
This is all good for the normal thinking child.

But what about children who never have a feeling of direction, or ambition enough to participate in other activities.

This is somewhat of a psychological problem that needs to be worked on before you can expect a successful entry into extracurricular activities.
If a child shows no interest at all, trying to push it on them only serves to make them regress.
You need to offer support in a way that can generate rather than expectation.
The more you expect of a child that's not ready, the more he or she regresses.

Frustration on both the parents and the child sets in and the child feels even further frustrated as they can sense the disappointment.
The old saying "lead a horse to water, but can't make em drink" is a good example of where I'm going with this.
By insisting participation, it enhances the chances of failing because the child is not putting 100% into what ever they try. This sets them back even further as they don't see lack of trying as the reason for their failure.

So in this case, a parent needs to exercise patience, and practice using a psychological approach to increase their interests. There are ways and methods of doing this, and it matters all that much, then make the effort to learn what you need to learn in order to get the child motivated.
Or just leave well enough alone and hope for the best. It's either naturally in them, or it has to be nurtured. To be sure, never expected.

Learn more about this author, Richard Serra.
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