| The Health Education component
of a coordinated school health program is a planned, sequential, K-12
curriculum that addresses the physical, mental, emotional and social
dimensions of health. The curriculum is designed to motivate and assist
students in maintaining and improving their health, preventing disease,
and reducing health-related risk behaviors. It allows students to
develop and demonstrate increasingly sophisticated health-related
knowledge, attitudes, skill, and practices. The curriculum is
comprehensive and includes a variety of topics such as: personal health,
family health, community health, consumer health, environmental health,
family life, mental and emotional health, injury prevention and safety,
nutrition, prevention and control of disease, and substance use and
abuse. Some school programs focus the health education curriculum on
the priority health risk factors of the nation and the state: i.e.,
behaviors that result in unintentional and intentional injuries;
tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; sexual behaviors that result in
HIV infection, other sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended
pregnancies; poor dietary behaviors; and physical inactivity. Qualified
teachers who are trained to teach the subject should teach health
education. |
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