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5
HEALTH EDUCATION IN SENIOR SCHOOLS
Miss D. S. Elliott,S.R.N.. H. V. Cert.. Dip. H. E. - Health
Education Officer:-
"To open a shop is easy,to keep it open an art "(Chinese proverb)
In an article on Health Education in the School in the International
Journal of Health Education in January,1960,Etienne Berthet said:-
"Health education became a necessity for a number of
reasons among which we may mention the following:
Need for knowledge: advances in modern technique
have aroused in the people a thirst for knowledge which is all
the greater as it applies to one of man's most precious assets,namely his health and life.
.The growing predominance of health problems in
everyday life (mass health campaigns,compulsory vaccination and
medical examination). Legislation for public health protection
will be all the more effective and more easily accepted if
public opinion is better informed "
It is certain that health is improving,not only has
mortality decreased,but each individual is handsomer,larger
and stronger. However,the resistance to fatigue and worry
seems to have weakened and our aim now is not to confine health
education to the mere teaching of health rules to prevent men
from dying,but to find new and interesting ways to show them
how to live.
It was with this objective in view that the one-term
Community Health Course was introduced to Secondary Schools two
and a half years ago. Hie course has continued regularly in two
Secondary Schools and one Grammar School,with the help of two
Health Visitors.
Maintaining this service while extending it to all other
Secondary Schools remained a dilemma until the autumn,when the
Education and Public Health Departments co-operated to overcome
it. A meeting was arranged for the Heads of Science Departments
of Secondary Schools to discuss the integration of the Community
Health Course in the normal school programmes,most of the
lessons to be given by the school staff. Some of the subject
matter was already covered by many schools and it was evident
that with very little change in the curriculum the point of view