The Positive Impact Of Extracurricular Activities

Many times parents will come in and want to visit with me about their student’s academics and what we can do to help their student succeed.  One of the first things I talk to parents about is having their child get involved in activities that our school offers if they aren’t involved already. 

There are many studies out there that exist showing a positive correlation between involvement in activities and academics.  Usually, the more students are involved in their school, the higher the GPA is.  You can look at this from many different angles as to why this is.  I am going to give you the two main reason as to why this happens.   

First, when students become involved in activities, they know they must be passing their classes each week as most schools have an eligibility policy.  If they are involved in an activity they enjoy and don’t want to miss it, students become more responsible and are more vigilant when it comes to their grades.  They have “stock” in their grades so to speak.  There are now consequences for not doing well in a class.  If they don’t perform in the classroom, they don't get the opportunity to perform on the court, field, stage, or on the mat.  Students involved in organizations such as FFA, FCCLA, Skills USA, Student Council, and mock trial also have to adhere to the eligibility policy. As a former wrestling coach I saw it all too much.  I would have a wrestler not out for a fall sport and he would struggle to keep his grades up.  Once wrestling came around, the teacher would come up and say, “I can’t believe the difference in this person since wrestling has started”.  This is because something is at stake here for the student. 

Secondly, students who are out for sports are held more accountable and have more grown ups invested in their life.  As a former coach, I would check my athletes’ grades each week.  If an athlete was close to failing a class, I would set up a quick meeting with the teacher, the athlete, and myself. We would discuss what needed to happen in order for the student to succeed academically.  Nearly 100% of the time, the student would follow the plan that was set in place and he would bring his grade up.  In essence a coach serves as “another parent” so to speak, another adult to hold your student accountable. 

Finally getting your student involved in activities will give him or her the opportunity to really build some character, learn respect, hard work, and other life skills that are important to us as we enter the work field.  Steve Cooper wrote an articles in Forbes magazine about why a certain big company liked to hire former wrestlers.  While I will not discuss that, inside the article was a key statement:

In 1996, Dr. William Brad McGonagle, associate vice president for administration at Texas " A&M University wrote his dissertation studying how former athletes transfer the skill set they developed through athletics to the workplace. He found that an employee with prior athletic experience was able to transfer the lessons of being a team player and also noticed strengths in accomplishment-based skills, discipline, and communication (Cooper, 2012).

As you can see, there is obviously some positive correlation between being involved and academic success.  It doesn’t have to be sports, it can be music, band, an organization, speech, any one of our many opportunities our students have to contribute in a positive manner in our school.  Getting your student involved will do nothing but reap benefits for your student academically, but later in life when they are hunting for jobs.  The lessons taught during this time are invaluable.  As your student enjoys his or her summer, think about how you can get your student more involved in school outside of the classroom.  The benefits are unbelievable as you can see!   

Sources

Cooper, S. (2012). Why Wrestlers Make the Best Employees. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecooper/2012/07/31/why-wrestlers-make-the-best-employees/