Prep activities' real cost appears when they're gone

What if there were a prescription you could give your teenagers that would decrease the chances of them smoking; increase their grades and social activity; lessen the chance of them skipping school or getting arrested; decrease time spent in front of the home computer or television; increase strength and cardiovascular health; and improve the odds of succeeding in college and the real world?

Well, this prescription has already been filled, and is available to lots of high school students. It is called "extracurricular activities." However effective this panacea might be, it is in danger of being made available to fewer students in the future.

That was the thrust of Star Tribune reporter John Millea's excellent series this week on the financial crisis facing high school activities. This is a crisis we should all care about because it affects the health and well-being of our children, and thus the health and well-being of our society.

If that sounds overly dramatic, consider a long history of studies that indicate that keeping your kids active after school -- whether they're stars or benchwarmers -- is beneficial to all of us. The studies are available at the website for the National Federation of State High School Associations, NFHS.org.

Academics are important, but most high achievers would excel in the classroom regardless of their circumstances. All Abe Lincoln needed was a candle and a book.

Activities help draw in average and marginal students, help transform any school building into a magnet for athletes and musicians, debaters and artists.

The high school experience should be about much more than algebra tests.

The winter of my junior year, the track coach talked me into trying out for his team. I did, and I spent the last year and a half of my high school life running track and cross-country. My grades shot up. I started writing for the school paper. I became interested in journalism, regained my interest in literature and wound up enrolling in the Missouri Journalism School.

Maybe I would have awoken eventually without the help of extracurricular activities. But I doubt it.

I've also had 99 percent good experiences as a youth sports parent and coach. My children are happier when they are playing a sport or spending extra time at school. One fellow parent of a not-so-gifted middle-school athlete told me he wanted his daughter to continue playing sports even if she never saw a minute of varsity playing time. He said he wanted her to deal with getting yelled at by a coach, with getting knocked down and having to get up again without crying.

Another parent, also an employer, said he prefers hiring former athletes, because they have dealt with pressure, sacrifice and strong authority figures.

One quote in Millea's series jumped off the page. Jim Richardson, an assistant Grand Meadow wrestling coach who is also a one-man police department, said: "Kids are going to be active, and do we want them involved in activities or do we want them active on the street at night? I get both aspects of that, and I can truly tell you that most of the kids that law enforcement in general deal with are the kids that don't have these opportunities."