Health Education - Development of Health Education

Health Education - Development of Health Education

Health education evolved from actions and influences dating from the beginning of human civilization. Man's effort to survive and live a productive life necessitated the establishment of costums or laws covering such matters as preserving food and checking the spread of disease. Principles for healthy living were communicated from family to family, community to community, and across the seas to other lands. These principles were shaped and reshaped by changes occurring throughout the centuries, war, revolution, pertilence, famine, social climate, politics, and religious beliefs have all contributed to the development of knowledge and beliefs used in health education.

Formal programs in health education did not develop until comparatively recent times. In 1850, Lemuel Shattuck provided a beginning for health edcation in the United States with his Report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts. His recommendation contained reference to the need for health instruction in the public schools as well as for periodic health inspection of children. Medical checkups in the schools became standard practice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The temperance movement in the late 19th century caused states to pass laws requiring the public schools to teach about the effecrs of alcohol and narcotics. This requirement was met through physiology and hygiene instruction, giving strong impetus to what is now known as health education.

During the 19th century, physical education developed in schools and colleges and in organizations such as the YMCA. Stress on physical firness served to establish further the need for health education.

In the early 20th century, voluntary health agencies impressed upon parents and educators the importance of health for the school child. A study in 1918 on the reorganization of the secondary school curriculum incorporated "health" as one of the goals of high school  education.

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