School health education

School Health Education see also: Health Promotion is the process of transfering health knowledge during a student's school years (K-12). Its uses are in general classified as Public Health Education and School Health Education.

What is School Health Education?

With the myriads of powerful theories and ideas surrounding the words school, health, and education; it is imperative first to define school health education, its targets and general practice. The definition of school health education has evolved much throughout the 21st century. In general, it is regarded as classroom teaching on the subject of health/hygiene in a k-12 setting. The major trend regarding changing definitions of school health education surrounds the ever increasing notion that school education influences adult behavior. In the 70’s health education was viewed mostly as a means of communicating healthy medical practices to those who should be practicing them; “Health education attempts to close the gap between what is known about optimum health practice and that which is actually practiced [Griffiths, W. “Health Education Definitions, Problems, and Philosophies.” Health Education Monographs, 1972, 31, 12-14.] .” In the 80’s definitions began to incorporate the understanding that education is a means of empowerment for the individual, allowing the individual to make educated health decisions. Health education then became “the process of assisting individuals… to make informed decisions about matters affecting their personal health and the health of others.” [National Task Force on the Preparation and Practice of Health Educators. A Framework for the Development of Competency-Based Curricula. New York: national Task Force, Inc., 1985.] This definition also spawned during the year of the first national-scale investigation of health education in schools, which eventually led to a much more aggressive approach to educating the nation’s youth on matters of health. Today school health education is seen as a ‘comprehensive health curricula.’ It is a blend of community, schools, and patient care practice; “Health education covers the continuum from disease prevention and promotion of optimal health to the detection of illness to treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term care.” [ Glanz, Karen, Barbara K. Rimer, and Frances Marcus Lewis. Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002.] This concept is recently prescribed in current scientific literature as ‘health promotion’, a phrase that is used interchangeably with health education.

The Purpose of School Health Education

School health education is one component of a comprehensive approach to modern day youth health promotion; separated from say, physical education and environmental health. It is in particular set apart in that classroom health education is seen as a primary vehicle for equipping students to modify what might otherwise be detrimental health behaviors. Thus, the primary focus of health education is to modify health behavior, presumably for its betterment—achieving longevity in ‘good health.’ It is important to establish the ends of health education as positive modification of health behavior, in order to create criteria for implementations of health policy. Health behavior is therefore another term that requires some elaboration on its definition.The most general idea of health behavior concerns individual and communal enhancement of overall quality of life. However, quality of life for one individual may not be the same for another. For example, one individual may feel the need to smoke cigarettes, whose nicotinic effects alleviate depressive symptoms enhancing his overall quality of life. Another, may feel that smoking cigarettes does not necessarily enhance his quality of life, in that it creates a risk for lung cancer which would encroach upon his seemingly greater health priority-- longevity. It is this concept of individually defined health behavior that is constituted within the following; “those personal attributes such as beliefs, expectations, motives, values, perceptions, and other cognitive elements; personality characteristics, including affective and emotional states and traits; and overt behavior patterns, actions, and habits that relate to health maintenances, to health restoration, and to health improvement”6 In essence, health behavior as well as its positive enhancement is subjectively defined by the individual. This subjectivity however, does not serve our purposes regarding what some might view as a culturally defined idea of health behavior. American society is known for its propensity to equate equality of life with longevity of life. Therefore, positive health behavior is then defined as avoidance of those actions which might shorten one’s life, and are qualified as “risky.” The scope of risk behavior is quite large in nature. Topics included in the latest national publication of Youth Risk Surveillance(2005) included; Behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries (such as seat belt use, helmet use, and driving under the influence), behaviors that contribute to violence (such as carrying a weapon, physical violence, date rape, and suicide), also the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs, sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and STD, including HIV infections, dietary behaviors, physical activity, and finally, overweight and weight control.7Every one of these topics is included in today’s recommended comprehensive school health education curricula as established by the National Health Education Standards Joint Committee.8 The purpose of school health education can then be seen as taking advantage of the ideal time-period to influence/modify human behavior (ie. Youth), safeguarding against risky behaviors which would be a detriment to current and future quality of life. “The ultimate goal of health education is the development of an adult whose lifestyle reflects actions that tend to promote his or her own health as well as that of family and the community.”9

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