Every student, especially at the high school level, deserves the opportunity to find a club, activity, elective or extracurricular that aligns with his or her interests and abilities.
Athletic students generally have multiple options. If students are academically minded, they can join clubs like Math League to show off their knowledge. If they're into the performing arts, they typically can enroll in band, orchestra, choir or drama.
Now, students who are into gaming have increasing opportunities to join an esports program at their school.
Contrary to the common belief that esports involves just sitting around playing video games, there are actually numerous benefits for students in esports, according to a 2021 report for Educause, a Colorado-based nonprofit.
Those include:
- Teamwork. Esports games can involve collaborating with others to accomplish a common goal. They work with their teammates constantly to improve the overall team's performance, learning how to adapt to each other's strengths and weaknesses.
- Communication. Any kind of team-based esports game requires an incredible amount of communication before, during and after games.
- Critical thinking. Many esports require athletes to think several moves ahead, taking in and processing huge amounts of data, predicting the reasoning of their opponents, evaluating their options and choosing a path forward.
- Social growth. Esports provides athletes with an opportunity to engage with a community of peers with similar interests, building social skills and a network of social support.
- Self-esteem and leadership. As players work with their teammates and coaches to improve their performance, they also build confidence and competence, which helps bolster their self-esteem.
- Time management. The required commitment for an athlete in esports is similar to that of traditional sports.
Plus, high school students can be eligible for esports-related scholarships for college, and the cherry on top of the sundae is that some professional gamers earn millions over the course of their career.
It's great to see so many area schools embracing esports and developing programs for their students.
©2023 The Joplin Globe (Joplin, Mo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
