
Learning development has been focused more on the conventional science, arithmetic, reading and writing. Extracurricular learning and development have largely been ignored for the most part. Health education is an important part of any learning curriculum, and it goes a long way in ensuring that students not only stay healthy momentarily but also adopt attitudes and behaviors that will impact them throughout the entire course of their lives.
The benefits of early conditioning means that parents, teachers and other educators don’t have to wait until their children hit puberty or turn into young adults for them to be taught very important lessons on sex and drug abuse.
Pre-emptive teaching does not have to be confined in the classroom, and neither does it have to take place strictly in the gymnasium. Health education is more of a psychological shift in attitude, aided by actual physical training and intellectual grooming. It also reaches into areas which hit pre-teen and teen age groups such as depression and suicide, obesity, promiscuity and other areas that may not be completely visible in a classroom setting.
The process involves everyone; students, teachers, administrators, friends and peer-support groups, pediatricians, community-based organisations and most importantly, guardians. It also actively involves the entire living regiment of the student, from the lives they live both in school and at home, the food they eat, sports and the relationships they maintain around them.
Here are 5 ways to develop a proper health education curriculum.
Inclusivity is Key
While it may seem that only rigorous sports regiments should suffice for health education, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. As mentioned, health education transcends physical, emotional, intellectual and mental health. Focusing on just one of these aspects will not be effective at all. This means that there has to be a coordinated effort between various parties, from the learner, teachers, the community and any other person who is a party in the relationship chain.
Tailor Content
With a health curriculum, you’re not just targeting one age set but the entire learning curve from kindergarten to high school and in some cases, college. It, therefore, means that you need to prepare content for each age set dependent on what needs to be learned.
Interact With Students As You Develop the Curriculum
The biggest mistake you can possibly make in the process of developing a health education curriculum is never interacting with the very students you are trying to teach. Often, educators will assume that having gone through the same process themselves years before automatically pre-qualifies them to know everything that is needed for learning and everything that the student is going through.
The key is to always interact with these students. It does not need to be formal; in fact the more casual and relaxed it is, the better for opening up some closed up issues and ideas. Educators need to believe that kids know better what is going on around themselves and with other kids. One way to interact with students is to take them on retreats and summer camps where in the company of others like themselves, they’ll open up more. You can then pick up content from such groupings.
Putting this content in writing and cascading it through school articles, brochures and periodicals is also a great way to reach students. Custom writing services Custom-Writing offer a great way to write content that appeals to young readers in a way they can relate with.
Coordinated Effort Helps
As already elaborated, health education isn’t a one-off thing. It’s not meant to start and end in the classroom, at home or in school. It is a community-wide approach, and as such, students need to understand that they have outreach that supports what they learn beyond their homes or classrooms. Policymakers and stakeholders should meet regularly to keep themselves on the same page regarding the most pertinent issues. Students should never be given conflicting information from parties within the same program.
Students Learn By Example
Your health education curriculum will be less than effective if students cannot learn from the examples of the very people who sit down to create the curriculum. At their stage, the minds of these students are very impressionable and it is important to practice exactly what you teach and preach, for this is how they take these lessons to heart. Learning becomes more meaningful if students are able to draw lessons practically from those who teach them.
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