So many scenarios… remote learning? Synchronous instruction? Asynchronous instruction? Hybrid? In person with social distancing and/or masks?
Whatever it looks like in your community, there should be a health teacher or two, or three in each school. And, there probably isn’t. The history of the American education system is bleak when we look at our journey through the lens of the whole child. Whole child means that school systems educate the child with all of their needs in mind- nourishment (nutrition services), intellectual (rigor through instruction), safety (environmental), safety (emotionally), socially, and so on. Gaps in health education and physical education have surely existed and in places where we have educators in these content areas, the support for them to access current and relevant teaching materials and equipment as well as professional development opportunities is minimal.
I want to make the case as to why every student in this country needs to be enrolled in a health education class every day of their school career. Ok, maybe every other day. But not ONLY for 6 weeks in middle school and one semester in High School as many are. Many students don’t even take health education in middle school. And, those that are getting health education are sometimes receiving poor instruction since their teacher isn’t certified to teach health, or has not received professional development in skills-based health education. So, those teachers… I hate to say it, are giving health education a bad name. I wanted to show what your children should be learning at the beginning of this school year in health education, no matter a remote, hybrid or in-person setting. Here’s an example of what elementary students should know and be able to do just related to disease prevention. This doesn’t include middle and high school and it doesn’t include all the other important topics… social/emotional learning, healthy eating, drug prevention, violence prevention, etc…
Share, advocate, ask your principal why there isn’t a health teacher in your school. Ask why each student isn’t receiving skills-based health education every day. We have to make this a priority. A thriving citizen isn’t thriving if they aren’t alive. If they aren’t healthy. If we had 100 years of comprehensive health education… the US would be in a much better place right now with more health literate adults.
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