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45
HEALTH EDUCATION AND HOME SAFETY
Health Education
In a modern community everybody needs to know and follow
the rules of healthy living in order to keep well. This does not mean
that we should become a race of hypochondriacs; there is no need
to stop and think each time before opening a window, or eating a
fresh apple, or washing before a meal, nor would anyone ever do
so. Yet we all need a good stock of basic general knowledge in a
form which can be easily applied at the right moment, and there
are occasions when nearly everyone has reason to be concerned
about health in both its private and its public aspect. In any case
the general practice of the community reflects the level of public
opinion, which needs to be well informed and responsible.
Certainly it is the business of the whole community, and in
particular of parents, to see that the rising generation gets the best
possible general training in matters of health. But the parent cannot
be expected to do everything single-handed and a strong
professional team, which includes doctors, teachers, health visitors
and social welfare workers of every kind, is at work all the time
to make sure that parents and children alike are living in as healthy
an environment as possible and that help is available when needed.
Within this team, the teacher's special relationships with young
people at school provides him with a unique opportunity of giving
them the training in matters of health which they need. The work
of the biology teacher speaks for itself. But the work of every other
teacher in the school is just as important, whatever subjects he or
she may be teaching. His general points of view in matters of
health, the standards he sets and the things he considers important,
all these form the main source of the indirect education which
every good school provides continuously for all its pupils. To this
end the teacher must have at least a sound general knowledge of
the main aspects of health education, including some understanding
of its scientific basis. He need not be an expert, but he should know
more than he has to pass on. He must also be the kind of person,
whom his pupils will wish to follow. All this is much to expect,
even though the community cannot ask for less.
Health education is concerned with a vast and varied field,
touching many branches of science besides such subjects as history,
geography and language. It involves every type of school, children
of all kinds, parents, teachers, all of us. And its claim must be
pursued not in the abstract realm of academic theory, but in the
demanding context of a good general education that will meet the
needs of time. It is within this context that so great a variety comes
together; the result should be a pattern of health education in
which we never lose sight of our main objective—a serene people
moving from strength to strength in body, mind and spirit.