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HEALTH EDUCATION & HOME SAFETY
HEALTH EDUCATION
SCHOOL and the FUTURE PARENT.
The great majority of children will later marry, set up a home, and bring
up children of their own. In doing so they will satisfy their own deepest human
needs, and at the same time play an important part in the building up of society.
To play this part harmoniously and effectively, through early marriage, the
first experiences of housekeeping, childbirth and the rearing of children from
infancy until they stand on their own feet, calls for a wide range of practical
skills and of human understanding.
On the practical side, the partners in a marriage will between them have
to handle money matters, the management of the household, the feeding of the
family, and the care of children of all ages.
These demands are not impossibly exacting, as many examples of happy family
life show, but there is no doubt that some preparation for marriage is necessary,
and that a framework of practical skills and emotional understanding can and should
be laid down during school years.
How far this instruction should be given in the home and how far at school
is a matter of judgments but children seldom get at home all the training they
need, and there is a persistent and growing demand for instruction at school.
A good deal cf such instruction is now given at school in courses which
include the practical drills, nutrition and the budgeting of money, time and energy.
Both boys and girls may join in discussions on such matters as personal relationships,
setting up a home, child-care and the responsibilities of parenthood. Many
schools, during the past years, have included mothercraft in the curriculum for
the girls who leave school at fifteen. A great many schools realising the importance
of this subject to girls about to marry at even earlier ages than in the
past, now plan a course for the older girls, sometimes taken by the Health Visitor,
which gives a broad view of motherhood and introduces the Welfare Services and the
help that is available when they have their first baby. Such courses include
visits to Child Welfare Clinics, Nurseries or Nursery Classes, and girls may go in
twos and threes to work in the nurseries for a day each week for half or a whole
term.
Schoolgirls often have small brothers and sisters to look after at home. It
is then all to the good if they bring home some of the new ideas learned at school.
Yet there remains a slight risk of the new learning clashing with mothers' ideas;
and it is not good at such a stage for girls to become involved in any conflict
which may confuse their trust in their mothers' judgment.
The general health education and home economies teaching in secondary schools
should make an excellent foundation for family responsibilities. Boys and girls
who appreciate the importance of good health and have some knowledge of how to
achieve and maintain it will later on want their own children to be well fed, housed,
clothed and cared for. At the same time, girls will have learned how to cook, clean
and sew, and the boys how to be handy and helpful around the house.
Probably the most debatable issue in the whole of this field is concerned
with the nature and scope of instruction in sex relationships. As a result aspects
of sexuality and associated problems are often either exaggerated or passed over.
Lack of sensible guidance on sex can lead to unhappiness and broken marriages.
Should instruction on sex problems be given at school? Opinions differ or
are divided. Some feel strongly that anything of the kind is more often than not
unwise? many married people have lived happy lives without such instruction. They
argue that boys and girls of good character will of their own accord develop
satisfactorily towards adult life and marriage and find out what they need to know
from reputable sources.
Yet recent surveys have shown that in some areas only a minority of children
learn sex from a reliable adult source the majority are instructed by other
children. Fear and misunderstanding often arise out of such a situation, whereas
children who have received an adequate insight into this most important aspect of
human life feel deeply grateful to the adult who imparted it, and the demand for
a more definite form of instruction does seem to reflect a great need.
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