What Is the Importance of Health Education?
Everyone cares about their personal health, for sure. However, in most cases, if there are any health-related doubts or questions, we trust only those who have a medical background and can give us professional advice. We wouldn’t want our condition to be entrusted to somebody who hasn’t got enough competence or skills, would we? However, we keep forgetting one simple and yet crucial point — no one is responsible for our health more than us. And that is precisely why health education should be made an important part of every school curriculum.
There are students who cannot clearly answer the question of what is health education. That is not only a set of rules on how not to get burnt or how a morning exercise can improve your overall condition. According to Wikipedia, health education includes these areas:
- Spiritual
- Environmental
- Physical
- Intellectual
- Social
- Emotional
- Sexual and reproductive health education.
As you can see, it covers a lot of important aspects, and that, in turn, means that students can be taught the peculiarities of taking care of their health on different academic levels.
Our health depends on many factors, and there is a high chance that we don’t know even some of them! That is exactly why health education should cover all the aspects of our lives and explain how those influence our physical and mental condition. We need to be aware of how our body works and how to prevent ourselves from contracting any of the currently existing diseases. One of the most important aspects, and particularly for teenagers engaging in sexual activities, is sex education. There’s nothing shameful about that, and it shouldn’t be kept secret because of the superstitions and prejudices some people have. This is what the importance of health education is all about. Lack of knowledge causes students who want to get an A-grade for a course they aren’t competent to seek different ‘essay helper’ opportunities. These knowledge gaps may also lead to poorly trained doctors and unskilled nurses (people to whom we entrust our health) to appear in large numbers. That doesn’t sound very optimistic, does it?
Perspectives of Health Education
Why is it important to educate yourself about our own health? What makes students and graduates become interested in health, seek more knowledge about it, and engage in health-related activities?
It is the 21st century now, and we all have open access to the information that can help us protect ourselves. That is why it is important that we get told about health only by real experts so that our hospitals are staffed with highly competent researchers, doctors, and healthcare professionals. And that begs the question, “Why not to become one?”
Health education is something that may be a solid foundation for your future career. On Linkedin, you can find about 298 921 results while searching for health education jobs! Companies are now looking for assistants, directors, monitors, nurses, and other health professionals who have a deep understanding of human health (and which was probably gained at school). Health is a hot topic, and there are about 621 TED talks on it! That surely brings out its importance in the present-day context, doesn’t it?
Of course, you can educate yourself about health by watching videos and listening to podcasts, but wouldn’t it be better to be directly guided by someone who can show you all the pitfalls?
Schools should also consider adding health education to their curriculums because it is highly important to ensure that students gain in-depth knowledge of the subject from the early years to university level.