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Psychology, or the American Journal of sible typhoid fever? If so, how?
Psychology?

12. What is the cause of cancer?
13. Is there any cure for it?

14. Is the foundation of the Chiropractic Method of curing disease sound? 15. Can you protect yourself from pos

16. Can children be protected from possible diptheria? If so, how?

17. Will your good intentions save you from the consequences if you are ignorant of nature's laws?

THE FOURTH ANNUAL HEALTH
EDUCATION CONFERENCE

From the Synopsis Prepared by the Division of Health Education, American
Child Health Association

TH

HE Fourth Annual Health Education Conference, arranged by the Division of Health Education of the American Child Association at the invitation of the University of Chicago, met at Ida Noyes Hall during the week of June 22-26. The participating members came from the varied fields of child health, in number approximately two hundred, and geographically distributed from Salzburg, Austria, to the Hawaiian Islands. To meet the needs of the varied interests of the conference members, the meetings were planned in three sections: The Health Program in Secondary Schools, Teacher Training for Health Education, and Materials for Health Education.

The members asked that students being prepared for service in our normal schools and teachers' colleges be equipped with fundamental health knowledge, that the everyday lives of these students should illustrate this knowledge, and that the dormitories and cafeterias should be organized to this end.

Another strongly-felt need was for an accumulation of facts gathered from research studies, which could be used in campaigns to convince legislatures, governors and communities of the necessity of a health education program.

HEALTH EDUCATION FOR SECONDARY

SCHOOLS

"In organizing a health education program for the secondary schools we need an expert in the central office who is a member of the staff, appointed to carry out the health education program", said Chairman Barr of the University of Wisconsin. "This person should be a COordinator of instruction, for we must bring together home economics, physical education, and health education specialists. In case there is not such a health education director, the superintendent should assume the role of co-ordinator, or the principal in each building should be responsible for the health program. To set up a functioning health program we must look upon the children as human beings instead of cogs in a machine.”

"incidental" health method, or by emThe question of teaching health by the phasizing a health fact or point of interest in whatever subject it may happen to occur, was discussed. It was unanimously agreed that an interdepartmental health committee is essential in every secondary school because of the potential contributions which each department has for health education.

MINIMUM ESSENTIALS OF HEALTH EDUCATION COURSES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Miss Cara L. Harris, Director of Health Education, Child Health Demonstration,

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, briefly outlined the outstanding essentials of a health education course: (1) Knowledge of the human body and its workings, so that it will be respected and properly cared for by the high school boy or girl; (2) physical examination of each student so that he will know how he stands in relation to the average, what his specific weaknesses are, and how he should care for them; (3) a close follow-up of individual physical defects; (4) a knowledge of the principals involved in sanitary surroundings and the ability to operate the mechananism of the heating plant and of the plumbing installation, etc.; (5) the civic aspects of health, including instruction of the ways by which health can be promoted in the community; (6) necessity for specific immunity to communicable diseases as well as the development of a proper community attitude toward healthful habits of living; (7) knowledge of nutrition, rest and activity; (8) some mental hygiene to help the student adjust himself to his surroundings and to other people; (9) sex hygiene providing sufficient information to protect the individual student and foster an open-mindedness toward the subject.

3.

4.

5.

school pupils? (Dr. Wood is making such a study for college students.)

What are the specific physical defects and deficien-
cies of entering secondary school pupils ?

What are the causes of absences due to illness?
What are the specific contributions of each of the

several secondary school subjects to the health
program and what methods can be applied for their
co-ordination?

6. To what extent does the health instruction in present courses reach the whole student body?

7. What are the specific opportunities offered in the

8.

9.

secondary schools for the learning of health practices and precepts by the actual doing thereof?

What are the minimum essentials of content of

health instruction for secondary schools?

What motives are most effective in interesting sec

ondary students in forming health habits?

TEACHER TRAINING FOR HEALTH EDUCATION The purpose of health education in the teacher training institutions is two-fold:

Promotion of the highest degree of personal health and social efficiency among the prospective teachers, and development of an intelligent understanding of the essentials of child health and the means of realizing the objective of child health.

The following were considered as fundamental to a health education program in the teacher training institution:

1.

2.

A job analysis of the practical health education program of the teacher in service.

Incentives to wholesome living on the part of the student should spring from professional, social, and personal motives. Not enough emphasis has been placed on the professional and social motives.

3. Every course in the institution should be conducted with a definite recognition of the contribution it reasonably can make to health education.

Other suggestions were made for the building of the health education course for secondary schools, such as first aid, simple nursing procedures and safety first 4. An interdepartmental health education committee

practices. The criticism was made that in many schools the game procedures violate the maxims of hygiene teaching. Uniforms and locker room facilities should conform to the health principles taught. Health as a factor of success in later life should be brought to the attention of high school

students.

STUDIES SUGGESTED

The section on secondary school health education decided that definite studies should be made in determining the needs. and the achievements of such a program. 1. What are the specific health practices, habits, knowledge and attitudes possessed by entering secondary school pupils, and also by pupils graduating?

2. What are the specific health interests of secondary

should be in each teacher training institution. The committee should organize the interdepartmental program and co-ordinate the work of the various instructors and courses.

5. Tests and criteria should be developed for the practical evaluation of the specific contribution of each course to the school health program. The discussion brought out these further points of emphasis in the organization of the program:

1. The futility of attempting to teach nutrition or home economics without practical nutrition service. The necessity of public health knowledge based upon

2.

3.

community needs.

The importance of biology as an essential subjectmatter field furnishing the scientific facts for sex education.

4. The indispensable value of developing wholesome attitudes toward sex, reproduction, and life, through direct and indirect factors and influences, to replace emergency, short or special courses in sex hygiene which are always unsatisfactory makeshifts.

HEALTH PROGRAM AS A POLICY

William B. Owen, President of the Chicago Normal College, stated that health programs instead of set courses should be the policy of all educational institutions and that the old courses of nature study should be displaced in the elementary school by a study of life processes, food values and rest, with the main idea of teaching health control.

Referring to teacher training methods, Dr. Owen said: "We should apply the same measures to our student teachers that they will apply to their pupils. Unless certain standards in the care of personal health can be established in the two years in Normal School, the student is not qualified to go out to teach. Of teachers of music we require a certain ability to sing. We should require a certain standard of all health teachers."

Arising out of the discussions, the following suggestions for constructive work, investigation and research were made:

1. Studies of plans for administering the health program in teacher training institutions to discover types of interdepartmental health co-ordination, and their degree of success in securing

a.

Co-ordination.

b. Dynamic organization of subject-matter.

2. An analysis of current student loads with a view to

determining the distribution of time spent in work, rest and recreation for the purpose of establishing satisfactory type schedules.

3. A study of what constitutes adequate housing stand

ards for student-living, covering

a. Feeding of students.

b. Plan of school grounds and buildings.

C.

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ESSENTIALS IN BUILDING A HEALTH EDU-
ICATION PROGRAM

The following essential points were suggested for the consideration of those building health education courses for teachers: 1. Inclusion of adequate scientific background and fundamental subject-matter. 2. Recognition of pedagogical principles involved in health teaching. 3. Provision for the application of these principles in actual classroom work under direction and

Structure of buildings (covering points of safety, observation. This should include class

energy conservation, and sanitation).

d. Furnishings and equipment of building.

e.

Care of building and grounds in relation to all
the above health needs of students.

f. Adequacy of living conditions for students not
resident in school buildings.

4. An investigation of such personality studies as have been carried on to date with a view to

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room visits, personal conferences and group conferences between the teachers and supervisors of health education, and a demonstration school as a visiting center for teachers. Before a health education program is introduced a survey should be made of the health in the community, the health education background of the teachers, and the local agencies that can be utilized and will co-operate in the school health program. Teachers should be cognizant of the community needs and the social and economic home conditions of their pupils.

MORE ATTENTION TO NEEDS OF CHILD

In his contribution to the general discussion, Dr. McCarthy pointed out the vital need for a deeper understanding of the pupils by the teacher: "We have attempted to build up curricula and syllabi, plastering them down upon pupils without knowing anything about the children themselves. We ought to consider human beings as a totality-not as diseased tonsils, defective vision, malnutrition, etc. Health is a matter of adjustment of an organism to its environment. Teachers should give more attention to the personality of their pupils and help them in making their adjustment to other people. The high school age is a critical age for children. We do not know enough of the lives of our pupils outside of the classroom. Often something at home is interfering with their normal efficient performance of school duties. That is one of the reasons why I believe that the visiting teacher movement is very important. As a conference interested in health education, what can we do in a constructive way? We ought to include in the high school health education program a course in mental hygiene."

The following suggestions for constructive work, investigation and research arising out of the discussions were made: 1. The development of health tests for teachers in service, involving habit, attitude, and knowledge, in

order to provide a basis for organizing courses of further training for teachers in service. 2. Development of a technique for determining base lines in relation to which health education work in any given community may be planned, and progress measured-such base line to include physical status of children and the environmental conditions.

vice.

a. A study of health status, customs, and existing conditions influencing health of teacher in ser3. An evaluation of varied ways and means of giving aid, instruction and training to teachers in service. In Particular-What new courses need to be given? How shall they be organized and related to actual school practice?

a.

4. A study of the effectiveness of teacher training courses as indicated by the comparative effectiveness of health work done by young teachers who go out from teacher training institutions.

5. An investigation of the relationship between health and scholarship with particular reference to the effects of improved health on scholarship.

6. A similar study of the relationship between health and school attendance.

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It was agreed that in developing habits the materials which are most useful are those which provide opportunity for healthful activity; i. e., facilities in schools and homes which provide the equipment for doing the things taught as fundamental to healthful living. It was pointed out that the best teaching materials in relation to cleanliness include the facilities for keeping clean, and that adequate instruction in selection of foods requires opportunity for selection and such materials as will guide right selection.

Among the materials most useful in developing attitudes are those which will increase the child's experience. Plants and animals furnish first hand materials on which the child can observe the practical application of his knowledge. It was also suggested that, without undue self-consciousness, the child will observe, in relation to himself, the application of health knowledge.

Material for enlarging the child's health experience and knowledge by actual observation of the activities of public and private enterprises supplying the communities' needs, such as dairies, farms, city water plants, etc., may be provided. Where first-hand observation or experience is not possible, a motion picture of such activities may supply a possible substitute.

The printed page must supplement, interpret, and enlarge these life experiences which the child gets through activity and observation. In addition to the information gained from the textbook, knowledge must be acquired from many sources, of particular value being those current sources which have the quality of reality,

7. A study to determine who is supervising health edu- such as newspapers, magazines, materials

from federal, state, and municipal departments and findings of research laboratories. Such material should be selected according to scientific and educational standards.

EDUCATIONAL CRITERIA FOR HEALTH MA

TERIALS

"If we conceive education as a process in which children are trained in ways which make for fuller, better living, the educational criteria for health material may be summarized as follows: What materials will produce the desired changes? What materials are dynamic in that they engage the child in the search for health knowledge, lead him to build and persist in health habits and enlist his active attitude toward the health aspects of his own experience? Studies are needed to show the comparative effectiveness of materials as measured by the changes produced in the child, but there is further need for studies by means of which textbooks per se may be improved," said Miss Laura Zirbes, lecturer in elementary education, Teachers College, Columbia University.

RELATION OF MATERIALS TO HEALTH PROGRAM

The success of the health education

pro

Dean Gray made these suggestions: "Do not pervert real facts to make them interteresting, because clear, true facts are as interesting as fiction. Avoid selections having too hard words, too mature ideas and expressions, and see that the reading selected for the pupils is easier than their grades in school. Material, when written, must be charged with interest whether it is prepared for informational or recreational reading. It must be adapted to the children for whom it is prepared.

"We must adapt material to our aim," he continued; "extensive reading is better than intensive reading if you are trying to obtain obtain a range of ideas. Attitudes and ideals can be cultivated in the field of health education as in any other field. Set up the attitude you want to cultivate as a definite problem until the child becomes familiar with the processes in his daily routine. Acquaint children with the source of material and teach them to interpret it."

It was the conclusion of the conference that the development and improvement of health education materials would be furthered by the following constructive work, investigation, and research:

CONSTRUCTIVE WORK

gram depends in large part upon the 1. Pictures and other graphic materials which further preparation of materials, their technique, and the physical form in which they are

the aims of health education should be collected and collections made available for circulation for classroom use.

prepared, according to the statement of 2. True stories from the fields of history, biography,

Dean William S. Gray, professor of education, University of Chicago.

Dean Gray emphasized the importance. of having available fundamental material to put into the hands of teachers and pupils. He said: "There is a great lack of accurate, scientific facts that teachers can use in health teaching. I should like to see our schools handle this health education program so that children will seek information about health practices and health conditions, year after year, as they grow older, just as today they seek good reading in their leisure hours."

In organizing the reading materials,

science, and literature should be selected or written for use in health education.

3. Individual classrooms should be used as sources of vivid, fresh materials which are the direct outgrowth of pupil experiences and classroom activities. Qualified agencies should undertake to furnish critical analysis of current, scientific material as a professional service.

4.

5. Materials valid from the standpoint of content should be adapted not only to the level of the student group, but also to the particular needs and resources of the community.

6. Ways and means should be discovered for training the critical judgment of students in respect to the scientific soundness of subject-matter.

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