Health Education In The Fourth Grade Of Solomon M. Coles School Of Corpus Christi, Texas

Purpose The purpose of this report is to describe the course of study in health education and methods used by the teacher in her efforts to obtain the best results from the teaching of the course and to give an account of those results. This report is as vital to the public welfare and to physical efficiency as it is to the field of education. Nature This is a descriptive type of thesis and the writer will earnestly endeavor to describe this situation so clearly and accurately that it will be entirely intelligible to all who may read it. This report does not present a complete personality diagnosis but concerns itself chiefly with the physical benefits, or health education of the children of the fourth grade of this particular school. It is the opinion of the writer that the work of the schools can be so arranged and directed that one can get the maximum final results in health habits and actual life preparation if teachers will insist upon it. It is the consensus of opinion among educators that education should be adapted to the life needs of the pupils, and this applies as forcibly to health education as it does to any other, because health ranks first among the seven cardinal objectives of education. There can be no doubt that whatever is taught should have some present or future utility to the learner. Therefore, the practical importance of this report is not to be ignored. Guidance in health habits has an unusually high value because teachers well know that if maximum returns are to be had from any educational guidance for all pupils. Both experience and past investigations show that health education is vital and necessary; that many physical defects can be remedied or ameliorated; that much illness and suffering can be avoided through adequate health education. It is the hope of the writer that a study of the results of this report may lead to further investigation in this field, and also to more intensive guidance and training in it. The ages of the children in this grade range from 8 to 12 years. The home environments of the pupils vary as is usual with our group. Elementary teachers in Texas are required to have 6 semester hours of credit in health and physical education. This means that all elementary teachers can and should give both instruction and guidance in health education