Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

234 Philosophical Foundations of Health Education
are of such magnitude and so complex that action on a wide front is indispensable for
their resolution. And in the long run success or failure will depend upon a participating
and committed health - educated public. For example, the Russians claim good results
for their integrated “ one package ” public health plan — including school and adult
health education — with the development of community health centers and public
health lecture series in the USSR (Hoyman, 1963).
2. Improved Health Science Curricula
A national health and safety curriculum for Grades K – 12 will not meet the needs of all
students, schools, and communities, in a pluralistic, pragmatic democratic society such
as Canada or the United States, based upon an experimental lifestyle. However, perhaps
certain principles should be followed in all the health science curricula. For
example, the health science curricula should be (1) organized for grades K – 12 inclusive
to provide for vertical and horizontal articulation related to personal - social health
interests, needs, and problems; (2) planned as a fl exible scope and sequence framework,
with basic concepts as organizing central themes, as well as major health instruction
areas; (3) developed so as to help insure a spiral learning progression from
elementary to advanced levels, aimed at improving knowledge and skills, changing
attitudes and beliefs, developing sound health practices, and organized to avoid boring,
unplanned repetition of topics; (4) organized to utilize modern health education
methods and materials; and (5) planned to include evaluation as an integral part of the
curriculum as related to student participation and achievement, as well as to appraisal
of the health - science curriculum itself.
A schematic health science curriculum organized to provide a spiral learning progression,
with both depth and breadth, in the following fourteen major areas of health
instruction, has been outlined elsewhere: (1) human ecology and health, disease, longevity;
(2) human ecology and growth, development, maturation, aging;(3) healthful
living and physical fitness;(4) nutrition and personal fitness; (5) alcohol, tobacco, and
drugs; (6) prevention and control of disease; (7) community and environmental health;
(8) consumer health education; (9) rise of modern scientific medicine; (10) safety education;
(11) first aid and home nursing; (12) personality development and mental health;
(13) family life and sex education; (14) health careers (Hoyman, 1965, pp. 115 – 121).
We need to sink deeper taproots in health education by grounding it in the ecology
of health, disease, aging, and longevity and in the whole epigenetic human life cycle
with its various stages from conception to death. All major health instruction areas and
health units should be taught from an ecological viewpoint. Three major areas of scope
are listed below to illustrate this assumption:
1. Human ecology and health, disease, longevity . Man as a whole open - organism -
environment - system, capable of adaptive behavior for survival and personal
fulfillment; an ecologic view of health, disease, aging, longevity, and death;
the personal health triangle: physical fitness, mental health, and spiritual faith;
hereditary, environmental (including sociocultural factors) and personal factors