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159
HEALTH EDUCATION AND HOME SAFETY
HEALTH EDUCATION
Education of the Young
At no age is health teaching more rewarding and necessary
than in childhood and youth. It is then that the disciplines of
life must be learned together with an understanding of personal
responsibilities, and the need for care of the body and the maintenance
of physical fitness.
To learn to spend leisure time wisely is important. The
home, with its love and security, is the place where these foundations
are laid. Child neglect with its serious consequences is often
due to the parents lack of knowledge; and over-indulgence, for
the same reason, may have no less unfortunate repercussions in
later life. Some of the ways in which parents can obtain guidance
in these matters are manifold.
Those who instruct the young at school or elsewhere should
not forget that perhaps the most useful health lessons, particularly
for younger children, are those taught indirectly during instruction
in other subjects.
Geography and history lessons and religious instruction provide
many opportunities; chemistry, physics, biology and domestic
science just as many. Games and physical training—now more
appropriately called physical education—are specific aspects of
health education. Whilst the set lecture on a health topic has its
place, it is as well to remember that fit young people, and grownups
for that matter, are not interested in health for health's sake.
Those who are blessed with it are indifferent to the possibility of
a departure from it. They are interested in the improvement of
physique and personal appearance, as exemplified by famous
personalities in sport, films, the Services and other walks of life—
the heroes of yesterday and today.
Camping is another healthy activity, which among other
things, directs attention to good sanitation and food hygiene.
Lastly, young people who have learned good health habits
elsewhere do not forget them at home, where they may be copied
by the other members of the family.
The Aims of Health Education
Basic health habits should become second nature. They are
far more likely to be acquired and followed when there is full
understanding of the need for them.
A knowledge of the broad facts about the structure of the
human body and its working machinery—and everyone should