Should disease prevention curriculum be considered the highest priority for teachers to use in developing contexts?

Yes

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by Calsue Murray

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I chose to write on the "Yes" side of the question upon which this debate is centered because, if students are not taught effective ways to avoid infectious diseases, they are likely to become sick. Sick students cannot be taught to their maximum benefit. If they die, teaching has been futile.

It is not enough just to teach students about preventing the spread of infectious diseases. Parents, guardians and everyone else in students' homes need to be taught also. They all need to be taught and persuaded to practice disease prevention.

School curricula should definitely have disease prevention as a priority component. Moreover, school curricula should include the goal of educating everyone, in each child's home environments, about the prevention of infectious diseases.

Students are never too young to begin to learn about ways to protect themselves from infectious diseases. Lessons about disease prevention should start at the earliest levels of schooling. That is when the parents of students should also begin to be taught whatever they have not already learned about preventing the spread of infectious diseases.

It is true that, in many homes, children are taught to practice good principles of cleanliness and hygiene. It is true that these lessons start when many children are very young. However, as many teachers can attest, practices of cleanliness and good hygiene are either not taught, or not practiced in the homes of all of their students. Annually, many, many teachers are absent from their classrooms because they have gotten illnesses from contact with their students.

It is never too soon to begin to teach students about the invisible world of microbes (bacteria, mold spores and viruses, etc.). These teachings can start at early levels of schooling. Children will understand. Even if such lessons begin at home, they need to be reinforced and expanded upon at school. Parents and teachers need to work together to develop and implement effective ways to motivate students to constantly practice good hygiene. this is especially so whenever and wherever the following kinds of activities take place:

1. Eating meals, snacks, etc. (especially in cafeterias, lunchrooms,
restaurants, etc.
2. Using toilets, bathrooms. outhouses, etc. for the elimination of
bodily wastes
3. Interacting with schoolmates, teachers and others in school
activities
4. Riding buses, attending assemblies, engaging in sports, etc.

A major challenge for parents, teachers and others will always be to have students curb their natural tendency to reach out and touch, or speak directly into the faces of other persons when they are excited and enthused and anxious to share their experiences and emotions. Nevertheless, children need to be helped to remember to restrain themselves in those situations, most especially during cold and flu seasons.

In many instances, there is the need to make greater efforts to motivate parents, guardians and others to get children to doctors,hospitals or clinics sooner, rather than later, when signs of illness are evident. It is also necessary for parents to be strongly motivated to keep sick students at home, instead of allowing them to go to school where they can spread their illnesses to schoolmates.

Prior to the onset of puberty and prior to the beginning of sexual activity, students need to be informed about social diseases. Students need to be accurately informed about the dangers of infection, methods of spread and the dire consequences of acquiring social diseases. It has long been known that this kind of education is not provided to the majority of students at home. Parents, teachers and others need to cooperate to ensure that students are taught, all that they can benefit from learning, about social diseases.

It may be unfortunate, but it is not advisable to have students wait until they get into high school health classes to become informed about the risks of sexual activity and the consequences of getting infected with social diseases. By then, it is far too late, for far too many students.

Much is said about young persons making choices for themselves and the need for them to consistently make wise choices. Many parents welcome the assistance and cooperation of teachers, and other school personnel, as they try to give their children the understandings, sensitivities and inclinations that can help them resist negative pressures and temptations and make those wiser choices.

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