After High School: The Lifelong Value of School Activities

It has been a decade since the NFHS published its latest version of “The Case for High School Activities.” It was a well-researched collection of articles that cited more than 50 resources. It included a wide variety of benefits for students who participate in school athletics and activities, ranging from better educational outcomes to the fact that participants tended to commit fewer serious crimes and were less likely to get suspended from school. The article indicated that school activities were primarily a part of high school education in the United States and Canada.

That version of The Case provides all the facts, stats and numbers one would need to make an impressive presentation to a school board, community group or parent meeting. It breaks down the salient ideas into four points, that school activities: Support the academic mission, are inherently educational, promote health and well-being, and foster success in later life. It then provides additional categories, including one dealing with the effect of participation in school-activities later in life.

The studies cited in this section of the article range from CEOs and legislators in Alberta, Canada, to the Iowans who graduated a decade before who could name their state’s U.S. Senators. Several use data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), an established organization that produces statistics on a broad spectrum of school-related topics, issues and categories.

Does the fact that a higher percentage of Alberta legislators participated in high school athletics than normal (Berrett, 2006), or that World War II veterans who participated in high school sports were among the more active and healthy 50 years later (Dohle & Wansink, 2013), prove something about interscholastic activities or not? Such specific groupings and targeted results might prove that, like so many statistics, one can make the facts fit the purpose simply by asking the right question.

So, what does AI think of this topic? When asked about the benefits of participation, ChatGPT came up with seven categories with some matching the NFHS ones and some characterizing the value in a different manner. AI’s seven categories were more individually focused than the NFHS set that leaned toward the school focus (and rightly so).

ChatGPT’s list included time management and networking, words considered more positive and mainstream in 2024 than in 2014. When asked about specific studies on the value of school activities, AI deferred to a variety of publications where such statistics could be found (such as Journal of Applied School Psychology). It also pointed us toward academic databases, both those managed by individual universities and libraries, and broad-based ones like JSTOR and Google Scholar.

“When I was a teenager, I began to settle into school because I’d discovered the extracurricular activities that interested me: music and theater.” –Morgan Freeman, actor

“I make most of my friends through my extracurricular activities.” –Kiernan Shipka, ballerina

Quantifying the value of participation in individuals after high school would seem fairly easy and straight-forward. Compare the success in life of a group that participated in high school activities with a group that did not and look at all of the ways that we value life: money, possessions, education, health, social status, location, career, family.

The studies cited in the NFHS Case for High School Activities provide all of the statistics you need, including the vague “schools with higher proportions of sports participants report significantly fewer serious crimes and suspensions occurring on school grounds” (Veliz & Shakib, 2012). But is there a true correlation there or are there other factors that are affecting the results? Where does the quality of the sports programs offered show up? Do schools with higher family incomes show the same statistic?

Is quantifying the value of afterschool activities after high school only done to put on paper what we all inherently know already? Does society value a well-rounded student from the very start, a start that perpetuates into a better life in itself? Is there a reduction in crime in schools where there is a higher percentage of activity participation simply because that participation gives students less time, energy and opportunity to commit crimes? Does helping students develop different skills, talents and interests keep them in school despite their difficulties in other areas, particularly academics? Yes . . . Yes . . . Yes . . . and Yes.

“If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” –Reverend W.J. Kennedy

It is no coincidence that Reverend Kennedy was the Inspector of Schools for Lancashire and Isle of Man in Britain in the mid- 1800s. His quote, attributed anonymously prior to his report, was directed toward scholarly pursuits. Even then, it was clear the success fell to those who were actively engaged in self-improvement. High school co-curriculars in his day were limited and primarily athletic-based, as a student was expected to study as well as work for their family during their non-classroom hours. Generally, society no longer requires children to work long hours outside of school to support their family and the expansion of interscholastic activities have filled that gap, but only for those who opt to participate.

This leaves us with several statements that can be made about participation in high school activities:

• Any participation is better than none.

• Providing a wide variety of sports, clubs and activities allows students to find the ones that interest them.

• Assuring that activity programs are led by competent adults greatly improves the quality of the experience for participants.

• Any time spent in those activities is time not spent doing something else.

• Every skill learned, talent nurtured or sport played shapes the adult to come; organized activities make sure that is in a positive direction.

In my first teaching job, I was the bus driver and co-advisor for the ski club. As a parochial high school, we had local students, students who were children of the faculty at the local college, and boarding students from around the world – many from countries that never have snow. Our ski club was very popular among our foreign students and included a young man from Egypt whose parents had moved to this community after the Six Day War in 1967.

Jamil El-Reedy was not a great skier to begin with, but stuck with it, getting tips from his ski club advisors. From his start in our ski club and with his dad’s help after high school, he became the one and only (ever) Winter Olympic Team member from his country. He skied in the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in slalom, giant slalom and downhill. Jamil’s exposure to skiing through his high school’s activities program changed his life.

His story is not unique. It happens to every student in every sport or activity in every high school in the world. Our job as educational leaders is to make sure that it is a positive story.