Activities Participation:

Best Predictor of Success

By Bob Becker

"As a teacher all my professional life, I am humbled that not my grades, tests and academic awards, but students' depth of genuine involvement in activity programs, predicts best how well they will succeed in their adult years." Douglas H. Heath is professor emeritus of the psychology department of Haverford College, and today one of the most sought lecturers on the education circuit.

That is his conclusion printed above, one he presents in his recent study "Fulfilling Lives - Paths to Maturity and Success." The study is in book form and is a summary of the largest longitudinal study of successful adults ever conducted in America.

That means that while other studies might have spanned three, four or five years, Heath's study went way beyond anything ever done before, spanning 40 years and charting the lives of a wide range of individuals.

His summary describes the key contributors to well-being, success and happiness in adult life. As you might well imagine, he has incurred the wrath of many educators in America. He also has found many disciples.

"School grades and achievement test scores predict moderately well which students will do well in school the next year. They do not predict well which students of average or above average grades and test scores will succeed later in life."

"Scholastically talented youngsters risk failing when adults if they do not develop the character strengths necessary to succeed. PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITY PROGRAMS IS A SCHOOL'S BEST PREDICTOR OF AN ADULT'S SUCCESS."

The capital letters in the last line are mine. This is a scholarly work, the author simply presenting his findings. But I didn't want you to miss it.

In his book, Heath admits that as a professional educator, he was shocked by what he discovered. "I was not happy," he writes, "recalling the thousands of hours I had apparently wasted grading hundreds of students' work."

Stunned, he began researching other studies in hopes of challenging his

Own results. He could not.

"I was even more discouraged to discover that in those few studies,

academic grades predict achievement in next year's courses quite well.. . and in the "real world" of adult success, scarcely at all."

The study is especially important today, as area school districts face

budget disasters and whack away at a school's activity programs. Too many people will see the activity programs as frills, not recognizing

that the values learned will directly connect to the student's success in school and future life.

Not many educators are happy with Heath's conclusions, but they can't

produce any studies that refute them. His is the most comprehensive study ever done.

Read his conclusions very slowly.

"... The best predictor of creativity in mature life was a person's performance, during youth, in independent, self-sustained ventures. Those youngsters who had many hobbies, interests and jobs, or who were active in activity programs, were more likely to be successful in later life."

When funds are short, school districts have to make tough decisions. But in making those decisions, some care should be exercised to determine the value of the programs being cut.

In most schools, the athletic budget represents at best one percent of the school's entire operating budget, yet serves as much as 65 percent of the student population.

Throw in the overwhelming evidence that participation greatly enhances the student's chances to stay in school, avoid drugs, graduate, go on to college and be successful in future life, and you have to wonder why a school district would touch that part of the budget at all.

Aren't the things those programs give to students exactly what schools are trying to accomplish?