Aim

The aim of health education from Kindergarten to grade 12 is:

to enable students to apply health knowledge in daily life in order to increase health-enhancing behaviours and decrease health-risking behaviours.

Curriculum Goals

The goals of health education for students from Kindergarten to grade 12 are to:

• acquire and evaluate health-related information;
  

• make knowledgeable decisions to improve their health;
  
• apply their decisions to improve their physical, mental and social well-being and that of their peers, families and communities.

Rationale for Health Education

Health is not just the absence of disease. In Population Health Goals for Saskatchewan (1994), the Saskatchewan Provincial Health Council defines health as "a dynamic process involving the harmony of physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being". This definition is consistent with and evolves from the World Health Organization definition: "health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".

Health, as defined above, impacts on many aspects of school life, from academic achievement to students’ behaviour, to social interaction among students or between students and staff. Likewise, various aspects of the school’s physical and social environment influence the well-being of individuals and groups who work in it on a daily basis.

The following quote from Health Canada’s Report on the Health of Canadians (1996) points to the urgent need for directing health promotion efforts towards young children:

The particular special needs of children and youth demand attention, or the negative consequences for children - and for all society - will be long-lasting, precisely because they are so young.

The benefits of school-based health instruction have been demonstrated in a number of studies. A quality health education program is essential to promote the well-being of Canadian youth. Indeed, such a program is essential to promote the well-being of all individuals within our society.

Philosophy

The philosophy of the health education curriculum can be expressed in the form of a challenge. Health education must be:

education for health, not just about health.

The health education program must promote and facilitate voluntary application of health knowledge to health-enhancing actions in daily life. This mandate is based on the premise that if present health knowledge were applied in daily living, then many more individuals within our society, and our society as a whole, would enjoy the benefits of better health.

Health Promotion

Recent changes in our thinking about health promotion and the factors that influence health have had their roots in the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, a document released in 1986 when Canada hosted the First International Conference on Health Promotion. Following are key health promotion concepts derived from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, which are reflected in the philosophy of this curriculum:

• "Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health." This definition of health promotion is quoted directly from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion.
  

• Many factors impact on the overall health of groups or individuals. These "determinants of health" interact with each other and with organisms to influence health. For example, the social and physical environments in which we live influence the way we behave. In turn, the way we feel and behave affects our biology and our overall health. Key determinants of children’s health, or factors that affect children’s health might be grouped under the following categories: social, physical and economic environment; individual capacity, coping skills and personal health practices; genetic endowment and genetic predisposition; and health, social and educational services.

Comprehensive School Health

Many of the factors that influence health are beyond the control of individuals. Developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will allow individuals to make healthy lifestyle choices addresses only part of the process of enabling people – including young students – to increase control over, and to improve, their health. A comprehensive approach to school-based health instruction and promotion (Comprehensive School Health) is necessary in order to coordinate the different services and programs that respond to the health needs of children and youth.

Comprehensive School Health is commonly defined as "a broad spectrum of programs, policies, services and activities that take place in schools and their surrounding communities".

Comprehensive School Health encourages active partnership and collaborative planning among all persons who can contribute to enhancing the well-being of students. This includes teachers, peers, parents, health professionals and community groups.

The Comprehensive School Health model incorporates four main elements: instruction, support services, social support, and a healthy environment.

Instruction

This curriculum advocates an integrated approach to health instruction. Issues should not be addressed in isolation. Rather, linkages among topics should be considered when planning for instruction. This reinforces the idea that no single factor causes people to be healthy or not healthy.

The curriculum incorporates the teaching of a wide variety of skills that promote the adoption of health-enhancing behaviours, such as assertiveness skills, media literacy skills, conflict resolution skills and decision-making skills. Such skills enable students to increase control over, and to improve, their health.

Support Services

Support services available to students and schools reinforce and complement health instruction. Such services may include immunization, assessment, screening programs, referrals, counseling, child protection, and treatment and rehabilitation services.

Social support

Children depend on support from people around them to make healthy lifestyle choices. Family, peers, school staff and others in the community play an important role in supporting young students as they learn to make lifestyle decisions. Positive models and appropriate policies in school, at home and in the community also support this learning process.

A Healthy Environment

A healthy social and physical environment enhances the well-being of students and staff. A clean and safe physical environment includes proper lighting, sanitation, ventilation, heating, safety procedures and regulations, and nutrition policies. A healthy social environment is free from discrimination, harassment, and intimidation. It promotes positive rapport among staff and students and may include self-esteem activities or conflict resolution programs.

Overview of the Health Action Model

The "Health Action Model" adopted for the Saskatchewan health education program focuses the attention of students on the responsible application of health knowledge.

This model, illustrated on Figure 1, provides the foundation for the grade 1 to 5 curriculum. All of its components are considered essential, if the students are to acquire the skills necessary to transfer health information into "health action" in their daily life.

Further details about the components of the Health Action model are offered in the instructional guidelines section of this curriculum guide.

Health Education 1-5 MODULE TWO

The Health Action Model Illustration

First, Shared responsibility underlies the program structure. The curriculum guide links the classroom program to complementary programs in the community, and recognizes the continuing health education provided throughout life by the home and by health care agencies.

Second, a three-level Decision-making Process, symbolized in Figure 1 by a traffic light, guides teachers and students as they address a variety of health education topics. Students gain practice in applying lifelong learning skills as they progressively and repeatedly go through the three levels of this process:

Level A: Stop! At level A, students extend their knowledge base Level B: Explore... At level B, students make informed decisions Level C: Go! At level C, students carry out action plans

Third, the content of the elementary level health education curriculum is organized around four broad topics:

• A Healthy Body
  

• Social Relationships
  
• Safety
  
• Self-esteem

Fourth, student learning is directed toward the aim of health education from Kindergarten to grade 12. This aim, as indicated by the arrows on the sides of the model, focuses on health promotion and disease/disability prevention through the increase of "health-enhancing" behaviours and the decrease of "health-risking" behaviours.

A wellness perspective specific to each grade level provides a developmental focus as students progress towards the achievement of the aim and goals of the curriculum. At the elementary level, the wellness perspectives are:

Grade 1: Becoming Models of Wellness

Grade 2: Discovering Wellness Patterns

Grade 3: Gathering Facts for Wellness

Grade 4: Applying Decisions for Wellness

Grade 5: Considering the Wellness of Others

This curriculum provides for and encourages local decision making. Flexibility in the choice of specific issues within the four broad topics takes into account the many variables that exist at the local level and gives schools the opportunity to join in with national, provincial and local program thrusts that may be highlighted from year to year.

Principles underlying the Health Action Model

The principles of the Health Action Model are the basis of health education in a pluralistic, democratic society where "health" is valued as a goal for all citizens and therefore all students.

• Physical, social, emotional, moral and spiritual development are cornerstones of all education, particularly health education.
  

• Responsible health-enhancing behaviour is based on knowledge of facts and basic values instilled through the teachings of the home, the school and the community.
  
• Health is more than an educational goal. A healthy living environment is essential throughout the school, not just in health education classes. The school, as a living environment, provides many opportunities for the student to apply health principles acquired at home, in the community, from the media and from formal school curricula. The school can also be destructive to health if basic principles of healthy living are ignored.
  
• The school, in assuming its unique responsibilities for providing health education, must consider the age, maturity and needs of individual children from a wide variety of home backgrounds.
  
• The role of the family in health education deserves special consideration. The "family" includes those people who provide unconditional love, understanding, long-term commitment, compassion and encouragement. Variations in family living patterns in our society include for example, nuclear and extended families, single-parent families and blended families. Children from all types of families deserve equal consideration and respect.
  
• Basic values such as justice, compassion, truth, the dignity of the person, empathy and tolerance for divergent viewpoints are universally held values in a pluralistic society and fundamental to health instruction. Democracy in the health education classroom is valued, with respect shown for majority and minority opinions.
  
• Because religious and non-religious belief systems of families sometimes affect decision making in health, individual families in our pluralistic society can expect that their beliefs, as they affect health, will be respected. In return, the school expects parents to tolerate respect by teachers for the beliefs of all students and their families.
  
• Shared responsibility for health promotion and disease/disability prevention requires that all parties involved in the program be active contributors and active listeners. Mutual respect characterized by consideration and flexibility is a dominant aspect of this shared responsibility. These factors are of even greater importance when two or more cultures are involved.

Recognition of these underlying principles is requisite for meaningful health education.