View report page

160
HEALTH EDUCATION AND HOME SAFETY
HEALTH EDUCATION
First and foremost, all teachers are concerned with the total
work of educating and training, that is with the development of
the whole human being.
Health education is often taken to be concerned with the
more physical aspects of growth and development, but it should
extend far beyond anatomy and physiology and include a consideration
of the relationships of the individual with family, peers,
members of the opposite sex, the community and society as a
whole.
It is to be appreciated by all concerned that many elements in
the subject-matter of health education necessarily involve value
judgments and are therefore the focus of conflicting views and
ideas. For many, the fundamentals of the Christian faith—
which have hitherto in such large measure shaped the general
outlook and ethical standards of our community in Britainremain
the determinants of their social attitudes and conduct
and of their training of their children. Others have come to feel
that greater reliance should in the future be placed on the
development of an enlarged individual sense of responsibility and
moral sensitivity to match the greater social freedom.
It will in any case be important to ensure that what is offered
by way of formal health education in our schools: —
(a) Discharges faithfully the responsibility of the adult
world to assist the rising generation individually to come
to the acceptance of a set of values which will lead them
to personal health and happiness in society.
and (b) Offends neither the consciences of our pupils' parents
nor the sensibilities of the pupils themselves at their
varying stages of maturation.
This last point is particularly important at the present time
if the sympathy and support of parents for this most necessary
element in the totality of our educating work is not to be forfeited.
Parents are, at the least, partners with the schools in the
moral education of their children.
It is very difficult to estimate the extent or the success of
health education in schools. Much of the teaching at all ages is
incidental and properly so. The private answer to an individual
child's question may be at least as valuable to him as the most
carefully presented lesson. Teachers influence their pupils