The Teachers College Press has just published a book which emphasizes the importance of children’s health and discusses ways that schools and communities can improve the environment, health, and educational achievement of their young people. Health Is Academic: A Guide to Coordinated School Health Programs is the product of collaborative efforts of more than 70 national health and education organizations, including the National Education Association Health Information Network.
The 360 page new release draws on the experience and expertise of hundreds of school staff, administrators, university faculty, and health and education experts. It favors assigning school health the same importance as mathematics, history or English, and argues that such attention will maximize student achievement. As one of the book’s authors points out, “If schools do not deal with children’s health by design, they deal with it by default.” Health is Academic stresses the fact that schools have the ability to do more than any other single institution to improve the health and well-being of the nation’s youth.
Each chapter suggests actions schools, school districts, state and national organizations, and colleges and universitites can take toward the end of improving school health. The chapters are as follows:
- Linking Health and Learning: An Overview of Coordinated School Health Programs
- Implementing Coordinated School Health Programs in Local Schools
- Comprehensive School Health Education
- Family and Community Involvement
- A Healthy School Environment
- Physical Education
- School Counseling, Psychological, and Social Services
- School Health Services
- School Nutrition Services
- School-Site Health Promotion for Staff
- The State Role in Coordinated School Health Programs
- The National Role in Coordinated School Health Programs
- Summary – Fulfilling the Promise
Health Is Academic was edited by Eva Marx and Susan Frelick Wooley with Daphne Northrop. It can be ordered for $24.95 by contacting the Teachers College Press, Columbia University; 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027; 800/575-6566 (phone); 212/678-4149 (fax); [email protected].
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