Chapter 6 - The School Health Program: A Component of Community Health

A coordinated school health program is one that is an "organized set of policies, procedures, and activities designed to protect, promote and improve the health and well-being of students and staff, thus improving the students ability to learn." The eight components of this program are health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling, psychological and social services, healthy school environment, health promotion for staff, and family/community involvement.
There are also three foundations in which a school health program requires in order to be successful. They are, (1)a school administration that supports such an effort, (2)a well organized school health council that is genuinely interested in providing a coordinated program for the students, and (3)written school health policies. One of the most prominent factors is number one. School nurses and teachers play a huge role in the influence of children. Most families nowadays have two working parents so most weeks, the children spend more time with the faculty of the school than with their own parents.
Though the program provides children and adolescents great knowlege for a healthy lifestyle, it also has many barriers to overcome. Lack of support, controversy regarding the curriculum, and violence in schools are to name a few.

Reflection: In discussing this chapter, Fab Five came to a general consensous that this chapter was very interesting. It appealed to a few of us, especially because we are interested in pursuing a position in a school system when we graduate.
We didn't really realize just how many components actually fell into the category of school health. Before reading the chapter, we viewed it as just physical education and health education. We didn't consider the couseling, the nutrition services, or any others, so that really broaded our view.
Something else we talked about was the lack of support for the CSHP. In many schools, it isn't considered as a "core" subject. Professor Swan put a quote up on the overhead recently that indicated that health is the most important knowlege you can get, because without it, no other goals can be met. In reference to that, your knowlege of social studies, english, math, and science aren't going to get you very far in life, if you don't have a healthy leg to stand on. With that being said, it is very important for children to get the right information so that they may lead a healthy lifestyle and encourage their families as well.