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December 5, 2006
An apple a day just doesn't cut it anymore
This report in today's Washington Post draws some interesting (albeit obvious) conclusions about the health of students and their performance in school.
For example, in Miami-Dade County public schools, eye screenings are mandatory, but frequently test results are not used to ensure that students are able to see the blackboard. Leonard Turkel, a Miami-area "businessman-turned-philanthropist" has a mobile vision lab that he takes to schools providing eye exams and glasses where needed. "The results, school principals say, are remarkable: Many of the kids--and in some schools it can be as much as half of the student population--who wear the glasses show improvement in attendance, focus and achievement. Their behavior often improves, too."
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a healthy student is one who can perform better in school. Additionally,
In urban school systems across the country, children who live in poverty suffer from higher rates of health problems—asthma, malnutrition, obesity and mental disorders—than the more affluent, and the academic consequences are very real, according to researchers who have studied how health affects academic achievement.
"Good dental care doesn't make you a good student, but if your tooth hurts, it's hard to be a good student," said Geoffrey Canada, president and chief executive of the Harlem Children's Zone, a large-scale initiative designed to improve the social, health and educational conditions in entire neighborhoods of Harlem.
These findings have tremendous implications for the reauthorization of NCLB, with many educators hoping that "health factors are given more attention by, for example, including physical and health education as core subjects and expanding the requirement that teachers 'be highly qualified' in these subjects as well as reading and math."
Here's the take from NSBA's School Health Programs Director Brenda Greene: "This article points out the necessity of schools addressing the "here and now" of students' health issues so they can be ready to learn everyday, and also the need to educate students so they can develop their own health knowledge and skills for a lifetime."
Greene advises, "When schools address health issues, it is best done through a systems approach that supports the needs of students through services while also reinforcing messages about health promotion and disease prevention through education, school environment, and family and community involvement.
"In practical terms, having the data is the first step, and committing to making improvements based on the data has to follow. Because schools lack sufficient resources and expertise to address health issues, schools can benefit from working with community partners, as is described in the article."
Posted December 5, 2006 1:35 PM |
Health & Wellness
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