Comprehensive health education is a building block approach to creating a healthy future for today's children. Curriculum is designed to build upon itself as students advance through grade levels. Beginning with kindergarten, basics for healthy life-styles are introduced in ten topic areas: Safety and First Aid, Nutrition, Family Health, Consumer Health, Community Health, Growth and Development, Substance Use and Abuse, Personal Health Practices, Emotional and Mental Health, and Disease Prevention and Control.
In grade one, lessons and objectives build upon the foundation of skills learned in kindergarten as do those in grades two through twelve. (See Scope and Sequence Chart). This continuity of information and reinforcement of health practices in age appropriate activities builds a solid core of skills, attitudes and knowledge. Comprehensive health education offers excellent solutions to the ever growing number of chronic health problems people face today. By helping our children to develop positive health habits at an early age and reinforcing them as they mature, we enable them to develop healthy life-styles. We also arm them with the knowledge and skills to make healthy decisions for themselves and their children in the future.
Comprehensive School Health Education (CSHE) is one of the 8 components of Coordinated School Health Programs (CSHP) as defined by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. An excellent example of this is the Michigan Model for Comprehensive School Health Education curriculum. This web site has extensive information about this curriculum and the materials that support it.
This page last updated on: 09/03/03