Should we spend money on high school sports and extracurricular activities? That was the discussion (which turned heated) I was having with one of my friends. His main argument was why waste the money on these extracurricular activities when most students do not even pursue them in college.
While I agree with my friend that most students would not become college athletes, I still think the main reason for extracurricular activities is the transferable skills you can learn
My first argument was that in most sports and activities students learn that repetition is important in requiring success. That they need to practice getting better and that while they are practicing, they are benefitting from the feedback provided by their coach. That repetition and feedback is a key to learning.
Secondly, you learn how to deal with failure. In baseball for example the best hitters fail 6 out of ten times. Most athletes go through a period in which they are forced to learn from their mistakes in order to improve as a player. These activities teach you that it is okay to fail and how to bounce back up.
Thirdly, these extracurricular activities often allow students who struggle in school to shine. Giving students a place in the school house in which they feel good about themselves. These activities are often the seeds in which their passion grows.
So, we do not have high school sports or extracurricular activities to win championships. Instead these activities are put in place so our students will learn transferable skills that they can use in school and throughout their life. As coaches and teachers we must make sure that the emphasis is not only on winning but on development of life skills.
I think your ideas are true. I know for me, I don’t go participate extracurricular activities to win an award. Sure, the win makes me feel good, however, that’s not why I participate. I enjoy going to extracurricular activities, like band, because I can spend time with my friends and it gives me a break from school. I truly believe that no matter where you work or go to school, that you should have one thing or one activity that makes you feel comfortable. I also agree with you that extracurricular activities help students in school. The simple lessons that people learn on the field or on the court can be extremely powerful when applied to other parts of life, such as work or school. Great post!
ReplyDeleteChip
DeleteI think as coaches and activity leaders we sometimes lose perspective and forget to emphasize transferable skills
DeleteI think another argument you could have made is that sports and clubs give students a chance to take their minds off the stress of school. You talked about how students who struggle in school, but I think that regardless of how you do in school sports is enjoyable and a break from homework. Sports and other activities is an opportunity to have fun, relax, and let loose a little bit. It’s a time to block off the negatives and just focus on that one thing you enjoy.
ReplyDelete- James G
I like what you said James. I definitely feel like in my life that I need a balance. I feel very stressed out with all of the homework and college essays I have to write but sports lets me escape from all of these stresses. I love playing soccer, basketball, baseball, football, ping pong or whatever sport with friends and family. Like you said above Mr. B, I have had a lot of failures during my time playing sports. I have suffered gruesome injuries and crushing defeats but it is through these failures that I have learned so much. I have learned to overcome things that I wouldn't have been able to without my experiences in sports.
Delete-Chris L.
I agree with both of you that sports is a good outlet to get your mind off school
DeleteSports and other extra-curriculars are also really important in helping students who have experienced trauma. Rarely are there enough school counselors to go around, and even if there were, students need other ways to express themselves whether it is through sports or something creative. -Avalon
ReplyDeleteI think sports’ biggest impact for me is learning how to overcome adversity. When leaving it all out there during a track race, it hurts more than anything. But in this, you train yourself to see not only the positives that lie at the end of the pain but also ways in which you can overcome the hurt by digging deep. You are in a way forcing yourself to do something that you did not think you could previously do, and that’s truly the definition of growth. I also think the very nature of the competitiveness of sports is what makes them so beneficial for growth. The idea of putting yourself in high-pressure situations during games forces you to face your nerves and be confident in your own abilities. To me, this sounds an awful lot like a test in school. I can say personally that these skills are constantly with me in the classroom and in life, and I am grateful for the opportunities I receive every day to hone them through extracurriculars.
ReplyDeleteI agree that extra-curricular activities are important in developing adults but there are sometimes cases where a person's life is consumed by the sport or activity. I've always done extra-curriculars for fun or to learn some extra trade skills that curriculum alone wouldn't have been able to teach me. However, there are capable students who focus more on these sports and activities more than academics. While these students are above the range of grades that permit you to partake in athletics, It's also clear that they can do much much better. Personally, I believe that academics should come first and that funding school activities should be optional and always come second. - Andrew W.
ReplyDeleteAndrew I agree that we sometimes loss perspective on why we are playing or participating in extra curricular activities. Just by the name extra it should not dominate the school experience in which at times it does.
ReplyDeleteWhile the benefits of extracurricular activities are valuable to a student, I do not think we are sending the right message about them. We act like our high school education is a game with university as the final prize, so we tell students how to "win". Often, students are pressured to get involved and they make the assumption that more involvement can only benefit them. This results in students stretching themselves too thin or ruining an extracurricular with their lack of passion.
ReplyDeleteI do not feel like students are motivated by pursuing their passions, but they are focused on their pride in being better than other students moving forward. Despite Calvert Hall's coveted "93% Student Involvement", you would be hard pressed to find a student that says they take a significant amount of time out of their day to focus on their own passions or well-being. While I do not advocate for the removal of sports and clubs in school, I believe that the way we teach our students to handle them is completely backwards.
I guess my point is, we suck at guiding our students to adulthood. We have this idea of a one-lane road leading to success and we want every student to follow it - work hard in school so you can work hard in a good college and earn a good degree. What we don't hear is the estimated 3 million trade jobs that are vacant, despite vocational schools costing less than bachelor's programs. What we don't hear is that 80% of students switch majors in college.
To wrap it up, extracurricular activities are great, but when you have students showing up to 12 different clubs and not giving a crap about any of them, or when a student is drowning in school yet insists upon continuing athletics, then we have a problem that is more than just school financing.
Thomas Podles
Tom doing clubs to pad your resume is not the way to go nor is that the way colleges want you to go. I do think however there are some guys who truly love what they are doing outside the regular school schedule. I would not expect guys your age to know what they are doing for the rest of their life and am totally okay with people switching majors as they try to figure out what they want to do.
DeleteSports and extracurricular activities, I feel, are important to a student's success and well-being, assuming they are handled right. For one, these activities should provide relief from the stress of school and daily life. They should provide an opportunity to explore one's passion and do something he enjoys. They also help build skills, such as team work, hard-work, persistence, and practice. These activities should be encouraged for all to at least try, not forced. However, when these activities are forced upon a student, or he feels like he has to do it, it becomes a chore, or a task, and all the benefits no longer have any point.
ReplyDeleteGeorge
Extracurricular activity funding is crucial to a student's life in high school. Although most students don't go to college to play sports, tens of thousands of students still go on to college to play sports. I agree with the lesson learning aspect of the sports, and they are also a good way to keep students physically active. Last, I think that having teams is a great way to have students build connections with other people who do the same thing as them in school.
ReplyDeleteTravis Johnson
Sports and extracurricular activities are not only beneficial and fun, but they are part of the high school experience. If you were to go to any high school and ask around how many play a sport or take part in a club. It would be a large percent. Doing an extracurricular in high school is not about trying to continue to do it in college, its about, simply, finding something to fill your time. As a high school student myself, if I did not play my sport, I would have too much free time and would not know what to do with myself. I would be bored. So, in order to fill my time, I play a sport. Furthermore, if high schoolers want to find something to do, its a no-brainer that people are going to spend money on it to have a better experience. Not only does it fill my time, but as you said, it teaches me valuable lessons about life, such as how to deal with failure and sometimes you can only get better through hard work. Sports and extracurricular activities are extremely important to the growth of a high school student in an important and vulnerable time of their life. The cost spending money on gear, clothes, and other stuff compared to the returns the high schooler gets in the long run, to use an economic term, makes a profit.
ReplyDeleteGavin
Clubs and athletics have the ability to make high school such a memorable experience. Just being realistic, most people are not going to look back at high school and think how fun learning was, but instead will look at the sports teams they were a part of or the championships they won. This teams have no meaning if the person involved does not have a true passion for them. I am a culprit for this as well. I will be the first one to admit that I have joined clubs just to pad my college resume even though I find no true interest in them. I have learned a lot about relationships and failure during my journey through athletics that I will use throughout the rest of my life.
ReplyDeleteJake Bleacher
DeleteThis is a great message. I've played sports my entire life and I believe that I have learned all of these values through them. Doing these activities gives students an outlet to express themselves through something that means a great deal to them. Additionally, I think its important to note that school allows for academically and athletically gifted kids to shine. In academics, kids learn to problem source, dedicate time and effort towards a desired goal, and be willing and capable to be successful. Its the same with athletics. That's what so great about high school, no matter what path you take or who you are, you end up learning what you need to fulfill your dreams. Thanks, Finn Gaudreau
ReplyDeleteAs a member of the robotics club at Calvert Hall, I wholeheartedly agree with your point here. The club would not exist without school funding, as it would be very hard to raise the money to support the club and charging students to take part would deter them from joining. Robotics has also taught me many transferable skills. Repetition is a key part of robotics because it is crucial to test out one’s designs and ideas. Learning to grow and build off failed designs is also taught through robotics because no one’s designs are perfect right off of the page. Without the robotics club, I wouldn’t have learnt these skills, which are very useful in other areas of my life. I use the skills I learn in robotics every day, especially when dealing with failure. Participating in this extracurricular has taught me a lot, and I agree that the skills it has taught me have been useful in other aspects of my life.
ReplyDeleteI wish that we our education system remembered to give students fun experiences simply for the sake of having fun. School takes up 50-60% of your waking hours during the year, if not more, so there should be activities offered by the school that remind us that life is worth living. Nowadays, there always has to be some "educational" justification for everything we do in school; just try reading field trip permission slips, where the teachers have to write some baloney about how the trip will "cultivate students' understanding of _____________" when literally nobody, not even the teachers, think that the true value of the trip is academic in nature. It's true that extracurriculars give values and long term goals and championships and glory, but to me, all that matters is if they make the students happier. When you go on vacation, you don't expect anything in return besides a reminder that life is good. Clubs should be should be the same way.
ReplyDelete