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  There are few things in life that are greater than sports and that is my honest (and terribly biased opinion).  The repetition that getting good at a sport requires is a great lesson to learn about succeeding in other realms of life.  In Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell the author makes the point (and maybe a fairly obvious one) that practice makes people better at things, the amount of practice that he says makes people great (outliers) is 10,000 hrs.  Sports showed me that you could take a bit of natural ability and stretch it very far through practice, and that this process was often quite enjoyable.  As a very shy kid growing up, I struggled socially for a long time (I was held back in kindergarten because I was so shy and had so few friends).  Yet sports helped me a lot because I loved them and because being good at sports made one more popular at my elementary school.  In fifth grade, cross-country was the bee's knees, on the first day of practice I think I surprised everyone (including myself) by being really good at it.  Being good, and having a great coach, encouraged me to practice and get better.  It taught me that practice really does help one to improve.

  Translating this indulgent story to education, things like sports, music, dance, etc., give students more opportunities to excel and find a niche.  Education is about more than learning multiplication tables and state capitals, it is about learning to learn, forming good habits, and being a member of society.  If a kid is into sports, then he/she will probably be inclined to practice, and also learn to make a team better (admittedly, I learned more about team work from football and rugby than cross-country).  These skills are really great and translate into many skills that are not measured on IQ tests or standardized tests.

Note:  This becomes very indulgent, so be warned that the next paragraph is about my high school football career 

  Evren, I really appreciate you broaching this topic because it is one that I forgot how much I cared about.  One of the most meaningful life lessons that I ever learned came on the football field.  As a freshman, I was miserable, I did not start any games and I realized that I needed to work really hard and learn how to be good.  So for three years I worked and as a junior I started on defense as a safety.  That summer I worked out everyday and did everything that I could to be a great football player.  I learned to watch film and about reading a defense and my senior year I started as a vastly undersized middle linebacker and fullback.  I was named team MVP and a league all-star on team with a 7-4 record (a great accomplishment for a team that had not had a winning season for many years before that or since then).  Looking back, these experiences taught me that if I was not good at something now, then I could be good at it, I just needed some time and some passion.  This really taught me that if I do what I love then I can be great at it.