I think we got off to a good start today and had some interesting discussions. In the lecture we looked at some statistics on high risk behaviour and examined the components of comprehensive school health. We started class with a warm up activity and I'm looking forward to learning other ways to warm up, stretch, meditate and be active. We examined the article, "Economic rationalism, healthism and school health education". Lastly, we started thinking about our personal health goals for the semester which we will be writing narratives on later.
For this week's blog posting, please choose two ideas to write about, or one idea in more depth. Feel free to share any personal experiences but remember not to give real names of people or places (i.e., schools).
PLEASE NOTE: We will be in a new classroom next Monday, Sept. 26 -- Blusson 11901 (go all the way down to the bus loop and then take the stairs -- its the third room on that hall). E-mail reminder to follow.
Enjoy the sun while you can! See you next week.
Hi everyone! Great discussion we had in class this week on a number of different yet interesting topics regarding health and students. One thing that stood out for me in particular was how many children were not getting enough physical activity and as a result, were becoming overweight. Rather than being active, they instead choose to watch television or play video games all day and become “couch potatoes”. I understand that some parents may not be able to afford to enroll their children on a community sports team or in an athletic program, however; there are many services and agencies where these parents can receive assistance. Organizations such as KIDSPORT and other government-sponsored programs can be accessed by parents and caregivers. These types of agencies help families enroll their children into a community sports league and help to pay for their registration and equipment fee etc. I was on the Board of Directors for a local minor baseball league and this issue unaffordability was always a concern most especially at the start of the baseball season. I believe that many associations are aware that finances may be a challenge to some families and do their best to accommodate or to provide assistance to the best of their ability. It is a hopeful feeling when a family can be directed to an organization such as KIDSPORT for support because they provided the financial assistance needed and the best part of all was that the child had the opportunity to play baseball. I know that Canadian Tire has an organization that also provides financial assistance to families whose children want to play hockey. Although this organization provides the same type of service as KIDSPORT, donations from the public also contribute to this fund.
ReplyDeleteEvery child has every opportunity to be active and involved to be involved in a community sports league. There are a number of resources for parents to access and these organizations can help their child be energetic and engaged. It is vital for children to learn to lead active lives because it greatly benefits them emotionally, socially and physically. Having the opportunity to participate on a team not only enhances their physical well-being but new skills like teamwork and sportsmanship not to mention friendship develop as a result.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteSecond class sparked up quite the discussions, which is great! Two topics in particular stood out to me and I wanted to discuss them further. 1st one is regarding school education of sexual intercourse and how the book offered abstinence to be the most effective solution although it highlighted that almost 50% of high school students have had sexual intercourse. It is an epidemic which is occurring at an increasing rate; therefore, preventing kids from having students from having sex should not be the only method of solution but educating them on how to prevent diseases and unwanted pregnancies should be an emphasis in their sexual education.
This topic relates well to the introduction of 'healthism' and the focus on prevention while highlighting the individual's ability to control their health. While encouraging students to a better life-style which leads to good health is a definite positive path; however, the main purpose of doing so should be for that specific purpose -- the health of the students, not merely to cut back on the money that is going into the health system. I feel that using such a system will cause many problems and throw the weight of illness all on the shoulders of the sick. Some lifestyle illnesses are preventable while others seem to effect the healthiest of students; therefore, this method is unorthodox and needs a lot of fixing before being implemented.
See you next class everyone :)
What I found interesting this week in lecture was that there are so many factors that can cause students to be deemed “at risk”. Things such as single-parent families, lack of sleep and low self-esteem were so common among my fellow classmates growing up that I had never really thought of them as being “at risk” factors for students. In turn, these types of risk factors can lead to decreases in IQ and increase the likelihood that these students will take part in risky behaviours. As we saw in lecture, 50% of high school students have tried sex, 41% have tried marijuana and 20% smoke cigarettes. We did not see a statistic on what amount of these students are students “at risk” but I personally think that students who are more “at risk” in other aspects of their life are going to be more likely to take part in risky behaviours, such as the ones named. Furthermore, i think it is unfortunate that teachers have such a burden placed on them to portray the right message about these risky behaviours even though that may not technically be a health teacher. Obviously, a teacher’s job is to educate their students but I feel that, due to these statistics, more health education classes should be in place in school and be mandatory for all ages.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing that struck me from this week’s lecture is the obesity rates across Canada. I recently saw a statistic on the news that said worldwide, there are now more obsese people than there are starving people. At first I thought that was obviously a good thing because no one should starve to death. However, now after seeing these types of statistics regarding youth obesity rates, I am more inclined to think that have such an enormous number of obese people in the world is terrible. The majority of obese people can completely avoid it, and I believe that begins in an individual’s youth and education. There are so many opportunities for students to become physically active inside and outside of school. There is also much more importance being placed on healthy food choices in schools, with vending machines containing only healthy choices. That being said, the rates of obesity in our nation’s youth should be declining, not increasing.
Hey everyone! I loved the discussions we had this week on the different health topics regarding students and teachers. It was an interesting class
ReplyDeleteSomething that really stood out to me about our discussions on “healthism” was how it seemed to blame the individual and didn’t address social, political or environmental influences on behavior. This reminds me of Aboriginal people and diabetes and the so-called “thrifty gene” and how this gene contributed to the rising diabetes rates among Aboriginals. Rather than thinking that society and the way that it is structured (ex. fast food being readily available, less physical activity, etc.) is the reason for the increased diabetes rates, instead people are saying “Its in their genes. Its their fault they have diabetes” and not even try to change society.
Something else that stood out to me during lecture was how the school building itself should be a healthy school environment. This stood out to me because when I was in elementary school, our school was drab and boring however in my HSCI 449 class, we are volunteering at an elementary school and they have the students participating in making murals for the walls and decorating the school so that it makes it a more fun place to be. It just goes to show that even something like interior decorating, which you would never think would have to do with health can actually make a big difference in someone’s life.
Hey everyone! Here are some things that got me thinking after our discussions this week:
ReplyDeleteSomething that struck me from conversation in class is how school health education has evolved over time. Although I grew up in Squamish, so things may be a bit different coming from a smaller town, I really didn’t receive much at all in the way of health education. We had the seemingly mandatory day of sex-education in both elementary school and high school, we had the DARE program (drug and alcohol prevention) in grade 6, and I remember one Earth Day having an entire day devoted to environmental issues. Aside from that, we learned our food groups in passing and that was about it. Discussing health education initiatives in class as well as taking into consideration some of my volunteer experiences, made me start to think about the wealth of health education that tends to go unrecognized in school. I found my experiences with health education to be primarily focused around preventing early sexual experiences, and drug and alcohol use. A healthy diet, the influences of media, knowing more about food and where it comes from, learning to grow food, building healthy self-esteem and image, healthy relationships and a whole variety of important health issues were rarely discussed. Talking about all the issues that fall under the umbrella of ‘health education’ made me think that my CAP (Career and Personal Planning) class in school would have been much better suited to focus on those issues, instead it was a class most of us laughed off and we rarely did anything meaningful in. As my group discussed in class, those of us who had CAP classes were taught by teachers who had no specialization, training, or even interest in health and career-related information. All these things in mind, I wonder exactly what is taught in classes today and if schools have adopted a specific class for health related issues.
On a related topic, I have volunteered as a mentor for a program that teaches middle-school-aged girls about healthy eating, active living, and healthy self-esteem. It is a great program that runs for seven weeks after school and covers a huge range of topics, from eating in a balanced way (not simply separating food into good and bad) to healthy relationships with peers and romantic partners to the various ways to stay active to the effects of media on self-image. It is a phenomenal program that I’m proud to be a part of but what really struck me about it is that it relies entirely on volunteer mentors. The program relies on a small amount of funding to get the materials for the program and to buy the kids snacks and to pay the amazing coordinator of the program to be paid for her work organizing everything, but otherwise functions entirely by volunteer services. This week in class, talking of the politics and funding wearies associated with making health education a reality made me think of the minimal amount of funding that goes into a program like the one I have helped out with- is it really all that difficult and burdensome to initiate such a health-based program? I don’t find myself convinced that health education takes such an unbearable economic cost as it is claimed to. I think communities, volunteers, and parents could all contribute to such a program, making it both more personal to the children and more economical on a governmental level.
Enjoy the weekend!
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis week as we discussed the vital role of teachers and schools to promote health, I was reminded of a report I read in a social determinants of health: Not Yet Equal: The Health of Lesbian, Gay, & Bisexual Youth in BC (link: http://mcs.bc.ca/pdf/not_yet_equal_web.pdf). This report presents findings on youth’s mental health in BC from the BC Adolescent Health Survey between 1992-2003, including the disparities that exist in LGQB (lesbian, gay, queer, and bisexual) youth. If you are going to be a teacher, looking at this report will give you insight into the mental health experiences of high school students in BC, as well as make you familiar with some of the differences between certain groups, such as LGQB, urban, and rural youth. However, one of the main reasons why I think this report is important to discuss in this class is because the results showed that school connectedness was a strong protective factor against suicide attempts. In fact, the presence of the top two protective factors has a significant effect of prevalence of suicidal attempts (see pages 38- 41 for effects of protective factors):
ReplyDelete2 top risk factors (i.e. predictive factors) = emotional distress; sexual abuse
2 top protective factors = family connectedness; school connectedness
Combinations effects on probability of suicide attempts:
NO Top 2 risk factors + Top 2 protective factors = VERY low
bisexual females <1% ; heterosexual males 1%; bisexual males 2%; heterosexual females 12%
Top 2 risk factors + NO protective factors = VERY high
bisexual females 95%; heterosexual females 93%; bisexual males 92%; heterosexual males 79%
Top 2 risk factors + Top 2 protective factors = Risk cut in HALF!
bisexual females 95% > 51%; heterosexual females 93% > 71%; bisexual males 92% > 40%; heterosexual males 79% to 42%
As you can see, school connectedness is an importance protective factors and it can have substantial impacts on the suicidal tendencies of students. This numerically represents the important role that teachers and schools play in promoting their students’ mental well-being. I think that Comprehensive School Health plans can play an important role in setting up school communities that support mental wellbeing of youth in BC, particularly the components on "healthful and safe schools environments," ""counseling, psychological, and social services," and"family and community involvement."
The second finding from this report that I wanted to share is related to the relationship between teachers and youth. Another protective factor for youth is feeling that teachers care about them. Looking at the table on page 39, it is really interesting to note the levels of students feeling that teachers care about them- even for heterosexual students. On a scale of 1 to 5, the highest scores were only 3.10 (in mostly heterosexual males) and 3.02 (in heterosexual females)! Interestingly, more gay males felt teachers cared than heterosexual or bisexual men, while lesbian and bisexual females teachers cared less than heterosexual females. Just something to think about for the future teachers in this class.
If anyone is interested in discussing the results more, let me know (this is getting lengthy so I’m going to cut it off now!).
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ReplyDeleteHi everyone! Great discussion we had this week. I found the ‘Economic rationalism, healthism and school health education’ article very interesting particularly because it stresses the idea that all individuals are responsible for their own health. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that focuses on collectively working together to maximize the greater good of a group of individuals. The health system promotes educating to prevent disease and promote a healthy lifestyle over diagnosing each individual with a disease and then providing medication to cure them. This is only possible if we take responsibility of our own health.
ReplyDeleteIn reality, there is no way that all of society exercises daily, eats healthy foods, and gets an adequate amount of sleep every night. Therefore, if individuals are diagnosed with disease or suffer from ill-health, they are deemed responsible for it. Today, the pressure to be health conscious is so great that failure to do so means implies individual “social failure.” Having read this, I thought it was extremely reasonable that we develop our own personal health goals for the semester and attempt to accomplish them. My personal health goal for the semester is to get an adequate amount of sleep. With so much going on including school, work and other extra-curricular activities, it is difficult to get the recommended eight hours of sleep. I am aware of the importance of sleep and how it restores all depleted energy lost during the day, but I’ve always thought of eight hours of sleep as being a colossal waste of my time. Therefore, my goal this semester is to sleep early and wake early all while satisfying those recommended eight hours.
See you all tomorrow! :)
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteBrian brings up some interesting points regarding our discussion in class this week. Over the years, emphasis on television and playing video games has become much the focus for many children. Should we allow television, computers, or videogames to our younger viewers or no? Debate and discussion has been made as to whether or not it is because parents cannot afford placing their kids on a sports team or various other community activities. A comment was made in class that really stood out to me. When we go to compare the price of a video game to a ball or kite for example, the price of ball is not nearly as much as a video game.
Having volunteered in classrooms over the years, I can confidently say that children love moving and dancing around, therefore giving children an opportunity to be active is important. Setting an activity schedule or routine for young children both at home and at schools can be beneficial.
Growing up, my family set screen time for television; at most I would get an hour. For those parents that allow television, computer, and play station time to children without time constraint are at risk of inactivity which could lead to weight issues or as Bryan called it becoming “couch potatoes”. Having said that, there are many educational shows and activities and that do encourage kids to get up and move around allowing them to stay physically active, such as Nintendo Wii for example. Over the summer, our weather was not that great at times and we had rain on certain days. Having family over from out of town, we had set up the Wii in the living room and took part in various games throughout the day which eventually lead to a friendly competition between all family members, even our grandparents.
In my opinion, there needs to be a balance and keeping a time limit or some sort of schedule of daily physical activity for not only young children but for adults as well. Whether it is on a community sports league or organizations like KIDSPORT, as Bryson mentioned above, it is crucial that children learn to use their free time wisely as it has many health benefits.
Having said that, I think I myself need to start making a daily physical activity schedule. Growing up I used to play tons of sports and up till high school I took gym, getting enough fitness throughout the week as well as eating healthy. Once I started university, all the sports came to an end and going to the gym was a lot harder to make time for. Part of my goals will be to stay physically activity by going to the gym or taking part in some sort of drop in sport, as well as eating breakfast while drinking tons of water through out the day.
Hopefully I can follow through with my plan! Wish me luck!
The article discussed in this week’s class “Economic rationalism, healthism and school health education” made me question how our individualistic culture has managed to infiltrate how we take care of ourselves and others. It was mentioned that the government could be using this “economic rationalism” approach as to put the onus on the individual to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep themselves educated on current health issues. Seeing as how Australia (where this article was published) is ranked one of the most individualistic nations, it is not surprisingly that its individualistic views are reflected throughout their schools and government. I find the study of cultures to be particularly interesting because their cultural norms are so often reflected in how their system is run. Taking this article’s stance on healthism, I believe that this individual-based form of health education would be better versed in collectivistic cultures. Oddly enough, I believe that collectivistic cultures could be more proactive in instilling these values into the education system and into their everyday life. By integrating health education with a collectivistic mindset (“how will my actions affect the ones around me?” or “what can we do as a community to help and encourage each other?”), it could have a much bigger impact on a collectivistic individual. The article states that if the society were to do this and that, and cut out this and that from their diets, it would be assumed that “our country would be strengthened immeasurably, and we could divert our energies – human and financial – to other pressing issues of national and international concern” (Colquhoun, 1990). Realistically speaking, this is essentially an impossibility. With the availability of fast food and high stress levels of the average citizen, our lifestyle choices (unless immediately life-threatening) will always take a secondary position.
ReplyDeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThe second class was definitely more interesting in terms of lecture material. What stood out the most for me in class was the discussion on the risks that students are facing. When comparing the lecture material to the reading material, I found it quite shocking that one in five students reported to have been carrying weapons to school. On average approximately ten percent of students reported to have carried a firearm to school. I’m not sure if that statistic is based off of American high schools but regardless, that is an extremely high percentage. It would make sense that the statistic is based off of American figures because guns in general are very easy to obtain in the states. An average student could obtain a gun from a pawn shop or from home.
Furthermore, another interesting topic that arose from the readings is how the author categorized homicide under “voluntary” deaths. I understand that in the readings it mentions that homicide generally occurs through children making risky decisions such as joining a gang. However, some homicides cannot be foreseen such as escalation in an argument or protection someone. Putting suicide under voluntary deaths seems to make perfect sense because it’s a choice someone makes themselves whereas homicide is usually not a voluntary choice people make. The readings have been quite informational and have helped me generate more awareness for violence that can occur within a school setting.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteThis weeks lecture and discussion left me wondering how the topic of health should be approached for young minds.
Colquhoun suggests that we develop a new way of teaching health within the education system. I’m curious to know how such a new system would look. I think it might be difficult to teach young kids that there is a wide range of socioeconomic factors that ultimately determine health.
While it seems counterintuitive, I think that the easiest way to approach the topic of health with children is to first introduce the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle through behavioral and lifestyle choices (the individual responsibility). Then, at an older age, introduce the social, environmental, and political factors that determine health. As I said, this seems counterintuitive because we would be teaching backwards. But from my (naïve) understanding of how the brain and mind develop, it seems like it may be the only way to approach it (at least within our current educational paradigm). However, I am curious to know how young minds would mature if they first had a broader understanding of how the world works, before attempting to zone in on individual choices.
I’m curious to know if any of my classmates may have some insight into how we can approach the topic of health with young minds… at least one that doesn’t take such an individualistic approach.
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ReplyDeleteWhat fascinated me most upon reading the texting was the Meeks Heit Umbrella of Comprehensive School Health Education. I was not aware that school health education was comprised of so many facets. With regards to the health literacy aspect, I believe that it is paramount for children to be able to glean as much information as they can about health and all its aspects. For example, we talked about community gardens in our groups and how that was a hands-on way for children to learn about their nutritional intake and about community involvement, at the same time. Instead of merely giving children texts to read or handouts about health, I think it would be more optimal for them to have active engagement with the topics they are learning about. Whereas, I am aware that this is not possible with all aspects of school health, I think it is applicable to many areas, such as maybe healthy eating, exercise, and teaching life skills that will help them become independent as they grow up. I also think that the idea of performance indicators is a great idea, but that it is not applicable to all children in schools, primarily at-risk children who may lack the resources and funding to acquire certain aspects of school health education. I am greatly appreciative of all the non-profit organizations that try to help at-risk children learn more about life skills and those who try to promote a healthy living. Most notable, a lot of organizations will run daycamps during the winter and/or spring break so that children can have a safe place to go to if their parents are working and cannot afford to take time off or put the children into a daycare. There are also many after-school literacy programs that try to help children with their academics and also other important life skills.
ReplyDeleteI was also intrigued by the section about physical conditions that facilitate optimal learning and development. Because I do not think that all schools ascribe to this and that this aspects may be subjective and vary, depending on the school, funding, etc. The topic about healthism that we discussed in class coincides nicely, as I think that budgeting costs and funding attributes to a lot of factors about school. Such as programs, resources, accessible extra curricular activities, school nutrition and a host of other things. It would be idealistic if all schools could get the adequate funding that they needed so that they could implement and carry out programs and services that would aid children. Even though I know that is not the case, it is always shocking and a bit disheartening to find out that our children’s school health education is almost always tied together with the amount of monetary resources that the school is allotted, because health and education (in my opinion) should not have a price.
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteIt was a great second class! We talked about some very interesting issues. I'd like to discuss 2 things that stood out to me in the class. The first was on praise and encouragement, I know we didn't stay on the topic for long but, I had a few thoughts about it that I thought I'd share. Second thing is just something I had never really thought about before regarding economics and health educations.
One thing that stood out for me in last day's class was the difference between encouragement and praise in a learning system. I would argue that encouragement is a more sustainable than praise and as such, a better reinforcer for children to develop both self-esteem and motivation. Encouragement can be seen as an on-going reward, we can condition children to do their work for the reward of encouragement and slowly ween them off that (that is they will learn to encourage themselves--develop self motivation). Praise I would argue is not as effective because praise, to me, can be seen as an end goal. The student does work to get praise, as soon a the praise is delivered he or she has completed their goal and received their reward and so their motivation drops in that area (they may seek praise elsewhere but they may stop pursing that particular activity because the reward was already delivered).
During our discussion regarding the socioeconomics of health education I found one particular idea very interesting--something that never came across my mind before regarding the impacts of health education and this was the stigma tied to those who become ill. It had, for some reason, never occurred to me that stigma could be a factor. Upon thinking about it a while after class I came up with 2 (probably shallow) methods in combating this downfall of over educating citizens about health.
1). While delivering the lectures regarding health educators should be encouraged to make clear that illnesses and injuries occur and this cannot always be controlled by the individual.
2). People can be educated about common chronic illnesses; that is, educated about their mechanism--sometimes once an illness begins it is difficult to control.
One topic that we discussed was the risk factors students can have which limit their ability to learn. I was surprised to learn that just four of the 25 risk factors can reduce a child’s IQ by almost 30 points. Parents and teachers must work together to make sure children are given the full ability to learn. However many factors make it difficult for each child to learn. A low income family might not be able to provide proper food, clothing or school materials which will limit the child from learning. Due to this, they might even continue to hang out with the wrong crowd and begin to do drugs. This is why we must assess these risk factors at an early age so that these “at risk” students can get a proper education. Health education is very important in school and we must education and encourage children to make the right lifestyle choices.
ReplyDeleteMy personal health goal for this semester is to improve my eating habits. I do a lot of physical activity throughout the week (weightlifting and basketball) so I am not concerned about that. However I eat a lot of fast food which I must change because it can affect me in the future. I recently had a blood test done to check if I am getting enough vitamins and minerals (fibre and iron) and also to see where my cholesterol levels are. While all my levels are good because I am still young, I must think about my future and how my eating habits can affect it. I will eat low fat foods, more fruits and split my meals into small portions so that I do not eat a lot all at once. I will also sleep 8 hours a night and limit alcohol use. By doing all this, I should see a great improvement in my health and decrease my chances of getting any health related illnesses in the future.