Committee on School Health: health education.

The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that it is necessary to reaffirm its support for the concept of school health education, from kindergarten through grade 12, for all schoolchildren in the United States. A basic concept of pediatrics is prevention, and health education is a basic element in the delivery of comprehensive health care. The public is continually bombarded by the media about the high cost of medical care and the overutilization and incorrect use of medical facilities. The media also writes about the problems of increasing promiscuity and illegitimacy; the money wasted on quackery; practices that are detrimental to the health of people in the United States; and the lag in the dissemination of new health information and facts to the public. The Committee on School Health believes that community health education programs, of which school health education programs from kindergarten through grade 12 are an integral part, are one of the most viable methods to help alleviate these and similar problems. Therefore, the Committee on School Health makes the following recommendations and urges action for them at state and local levels. 1. Health education is a basic education subject, and it should be taught as such. Health education is compatible with other traditional subjects and can enhance the contribution that other basic subjects make to general life experience, understanding, and skills. 2. Planned, integrated programs of comprehensive health education should be required for students from kindergarten through grade 12. Instruction should be given by teachers qualified to teach health education.