Implications of School Health Program in USA



Implications of School Health Program in USA

Introduction

School health programs or services are those services which are provided under the supervision of professionals pertaining to the field of medical, or even teaching in some cases, either inside or outside the parameters of school; merely for the purpose of increasing the overall well being of the students, or even in some cases the entire family (Allensworth & Kolbe, 2009). Soon after they were first introduced, these services gained attention throughout the world and various schools caught up with this phenomenon. The fundamental values of these services remain the same throughout the world; however the environment under which these are provided may vary from school to school, or country to country (Kolbe, 2005). The focal point of these services is to identify the presence of any disease or disability that the school kids might have, preventing it and ensuring that the school environment stays healthy.

Discussion

History

The turnaround in the history of such school health programs was registered after the World War I. The reason being that right after the war, the bitter reality of poverty, and the problems associated with it became apparent to the world for the very first time. New measures had to be taken to replace the already used health promotional plans, because it was the need of the time. This is when the ideology of a well planned, organized and structured school health program began to gain attention. It was during the years 1918 and 1921 that almost every other state introduced the laws pertaining to health education for its student. During the 1920's to 40's, a number of studies were carried out and it wasn't until the 60's and 70's that funding begun to come in for such programs. This was when such programs were focused towards the disadvantaged and special strata of the population. However, since after the 1980's a renewed approach has been taken by schools to address to the health problems present among their students.

Community

The School health community is a wide reaching move towards promoting the presence of a healthy environment, nursing facilities and other physical activities of the students which are carried out under the supervision of knowledgeable teachers and programmers. It is basically a leap from shifting the mindset of the masses from making a bookish learning curriculum towards a system which not only looks after the bookish learning, but also takes under consideration the overall requirements of a child. It seeks to incorporate all the factors which are required for achieving success in the life of an average student. It envisages to bring other different schools around the community to work together for providing substantial opportunities to students to design and participate in activities which tend to improve both their learning and physical health simultaneously.

National Statistics

In the year 1920, a large number of students were made to pass through the same grade twice, merely because of the fact that these students lacked in their ...