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Health Education Projects: World War II brought a renewed focus on the role of the school in promoting good health. The traditional equating of health with physical fitness, and health education with physical education, was further perpetuated during this period. During the 1960's this concept was replaced by the identification of health education as a discipline separate from physical education. The School Health Education Study, initiated with private funds in 1961, had the most significant impact in establishing health education as a separate discipline.
About 70 colleges and universities offer programs to train health education teachers, and the profession is growing. Members of the profession feel strongly that health education should not be considered a part of physical education and that physical education should not be a branch of health education. Some high schools now give a half year to physical education and a half year to health instruction.
By providing funds, the OEO also shared in the development of the Student Health Organization, a group of students from the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and the other health professions. The students undertook health education projects and other community health services with minimal guidance from their teachers, then returned to their universities insisting that more students in these professions should learn about the problems of the underprivileged through direct experience. |
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