Disease Prevention

For the most part, a health educator is supposed to assess the needs of their target group and develop a curriculum for school health education based on those needs. Before the health educator can fully develop the curricula, they should think about all of the different aspects of school health education that need to be covered. While the initial assessment of what the target group is going to play a large part in what a health educator teaches, the curriculum must be well balanced, and there are some main focal points that should be hit. For those of you that are not familiar with what is offered in school health education, below you will find the main points that are covered by a health educator in their classes.

1. Health promotion – Obviously this is going to cover different aspects for different age groups, but the important part is that good health habits are formed during these pivotal years. School health education for the younger age groups will cover things like how to brush your teeth well, flossing, bathing daily, and washing your hands with soap and water. A health educator has to make sure that young children know about basic hygiene. As they get older, their school health education will go on to cover maintaining a healthy diet, exercising to keep in shape, and whatever else the health educator feels is necessary.

2. Seeking help – Students should be taught by their health educator how to seek health treatment if they need it. If they are sick, they should be visiting a doctor to see what is wrong. When they are feeling depressed or unstable, perhaps a visit to a therapist is in order. For a toothache, they should be making a trip to the dentist. Knowing how to help yourself is a large part of school health education.

3. Disease prevention – This can actually overlap with health promotion in a few aspects. Having good hygiene, keeping a good diet, and exercising regularly are definitely going to help to keep somebody disease free, that is for sure. However, in later years, school health education will more geared toward issues that are dealt with by teens on a regular basis. A health educator will be teaching teenagers about their bodies, the changes they will be going through, and how to prevent diseases and pregnancy. At this point, school health education regarding sex will delve into proper condom usage, what type of sexual transmitted diseases are out there, and how they can keep from contracting those diseases. It is very important that a health educator lets no issue be taboo for them or their students.

These are the three major issues that are dealt with in school health education, but there are plenty more that are tapped during grade school. A health educator has to take many things into account when they are creating curricula for their classes, but these topics will most definitely be included.

Health Education In Schools

Children head to school at an early age not only to learn about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also to learn about issues that are important to becoming a productive member of society. They will be learning how to work in groups, get along with others, and school is responsible for much of the social interactions early on for a young person. Along with these very important subjects comes the issue of school health education. There are many people that are for and against health education in school, but we believe that school health education is a vital part of a school’s curriculum. For any of you out there that may be against health education in the classroom, or for anyone that is unaware of all the benefits that a school health education program provides, below you will find some of the top reasons why our children need to learn about this subject.

1. We are not doctors – A number of people complain that health education should be left to the parents, but this is not always a realistic argument. Most parents do not have the knowledge necessary to provide their children with a proper health education, and that can be very detrimental to our youth. With a school health education program, you can rest assured that they will be receiving up to date and accurate information, straight from text books and school health education professionals.

2. The spread of misinformation – One very important function that a school health education program serves is that it is helping to put an end to the spread of misinformation. What we know now in the medical field in many cases is drastically different from what we thought just fifty years ago. When a parent passes along information that may have been true when they were growing up, they could be unintentionally misinforming their child. With health education classes in place, both the child and parent can learn new things together.

3. Child neglect – It may be a difficult subject to discuss, but there are children out there that suffer from neglect. If the duty of health education were up to the parents, there may be several children out there that will not be receiving the information they would from a school health education program. Health education classes teach kids how they can live their lives in a healthy way and treat their bodies with respect. If it were not for school health education, we would see plenty more children with poor hygiene and disregard for their won well-being.

In the end, depriving our country’s youth from a chance to learn more about the human body and how to keep it functioning smoothly through the use of school health education would be a mistake. We do not want generations of children growing up without health education and not knowing how to use a toothbrush. The most important thing here is to keep our kids safe in any way we can.

School Health Education

School health education is vital to a child’s learning experience. The bottom line is, not all parents have the time, drive, and expertise to provide their children with an adequate health education. There have been ongoing debates about whether health education has a place in a school’s curriculum, and both sides have their points, but something like school health education is far too important to get rid of. For people to have a serious dialogue about these issues, we need to fully understand both positions of the health education debate. When we gain a certain familiarity with both sides of an argument, we will be better prepared to put together cohesive arguments and strong points. Below you will find some of the reasons why school health education is so important.

Childhood – From Kindergarten until 6th grade, kids will be receiving their first taste of health education. This is where kids will learn about how important it is to brush their teeth at least twice a day, flossing (which many adults still do not do!), and bathing daily. They will also learn about the brain, heart, and all of the other organ systems in the human body. Not having this type of school health education would be depriving them of the simplest knowledge of our bodies. Health education at this stage is just as important as learning addition and subtraction.

Adolescence – This is the stage where many parents have problems with the school health education curriculum. While students are going to be learning about biology and chemistry as a part of their health education, they will also be learning about some subjects that are more controversial. Middle school and high school curricula will include sex education as a part of the health education classes, and many parents have a problem with that.

Without going into why they have these problems, we will just say that school health education programs will provide teens with information about safe sex and sexually transmitted diseases that can save lives. Teenagers are going to have sex, that is a fact. Even in the most conservative countries and states, there are teens that do have sex, so it is important that we educate them about it. Without a health education class, teens may not know about the life threatening diseases that can be contracted through unsafe sex, and their lives could be put in danger.

The use of condoms has been helping to reduce the spread of disease all over the world. If the youth of our country are unaware about proper condom use, they could be putting themselves at risk for contracting diseases such as HIV/AIDS or they could become pregnant at an age where they are still growing as people themselves. Not teaching the youth about sex in school health education classes would simply be irresponsible. Health education would not be complete without teaching everything about the human body.