High Schools all over are working towards a common goal: making their environment healthier for all students. Schools hope to improve their students mental, physical, and spiritual health. One way to do that is clubs. With a variety of different clubs students can be healthy in all aspects of life.
Having recreational/club teams for sports can help students thrive, especially for bigger schools where sports teams are harder to join. Kids who get cut from both varsity and junior varsity (JV) but still want to participate in a sport would benefit from clubs because they can still have a team environment and play without being on school team.
A huge positive of schools offering recreational/club teams is that students can stay active and improve their skills with less pressure to preform well. Club sports could also be an alternative so kids can have the option to play sports that the school does not offer. Kids who participate in clubs are healthy and successful in many aspects of their life including socially and academically.
In an article, “What are the Benefits of Getting Your Kids Involved in Clubs or Sports”, the authors talk about how there are many correlations between students who are exceptional at managing their time and kid who are involved in clubs and sports: “Participating in clubs and sports teaches students how to balance their time effectively, juggling the demands of practices, meetings, and competitions with their academic responsibilities.”
On top of benefiting student productivity, sports can also help them branch out and meet new people. These new formed friendships with like minded individuals combined with physical activity creates “improvements in physical health, stress management and academic benchmarks.” Sports clubs can be one way that schools can become healthier due to the positive effects it has on all aspects of a students life (socially and physically). This can single handedly improve a student’s health.
Though sports clubs would definitely benefit students, there are many kids who are not drawn to athletics, which makes it important to have a variety of different clubs. Clubs such as the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA) can benefit students. This is because students have a safe space to share things they struggle with which can create a sense of comfort and community. GSA helps students gain friends with similar interests and views while also being support for kids who need it.
Other clubs that are less common that could benefit students are spiritual clubs such as meditation/yoga and bible/religious clubs. These can help kids connect with like minded individuals who want to strengthen the mind/body or their religious views. Clubs such as meditation and yoga can help students be spiritual without being part of a club based on religion. On top of health of students it can also benefit their communication skills: “Your participation in clubs can hone your communication skills, foster creative thinking, and teach you how to work effectively with other people”. This helps people create strong bonds and succeed in professional environments.
Though not everyone is religious having the option for kids to express it helps with, “happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, and close social relationships.” Religious clubs don’t just mean focusing on one religion, for some clubs there may be a main focus, but they also can be beneficial for students who are spiritual to have the opportunity to learn about other religions and views with no pressure to change their own perspective.
School clubs benefit “Students who are struggling with mental health challenges, clubs can provide a supportive environment and a healthy outlet for stress,” which creates better student health and school community. Clubs help everyone’s health based on their interests.
Whether you are interested in athletic, religious, or spiritual clubs, having the opportunity to participate can help make schools an overall healthier place. Though clubs don’t seem super important they can have long lasting effects on students health and happiness.
