Health in the Church School

To ensure the development of good health practices, the educator should provide health knowledge, the motive for healthful living, and, if possible, opportunities for health experiences.

Miriam G. Tymes

The educated person desires health for others, knowing that health is one commodity which is increased in proportion as it is shared. To ensure the development of good health practices, the educator should provide health knowledge, the motive for healthful living, and, if possible, opportunities for health experiences. It is the responsibility of the school administrator to provide time for health instruction and to give leadership to a well-organized health-instruction program which is broad and inclusive, and yet avoids overlapping of con­tent and boresome repetition, which would defeat the objectives of the health-instruction program. Mrs. S. W. Tymeson, principal of the John Nevins Andrews church school, Takoma Park, Maryland, points out some of the unparalleled opportunities for health instruction which arise in the school.

The Spirit of prophecy, which is our guide in all phases of education, has much to say on the health of our children and youth. I will not take time to generalize on this subject but come imme­diately to the subject of the health program in our elementary schools.

The entire success or failure of the church school in each locality may depend upon the health of the teacher and the students. The importance of this subject in the elementary school is em­phasized by this statement from Fundamentals, of Christian Education, page 145: "Many parents and teachers fail to understand that in the child's early years the greatest attention needs to be given to the physical constitution, that a healthy condition of body and brain may be secured."

I would emphasize the two words "greatest at­tention." This would indicate giving more than ordinary attention to the health of our children. How can the average church school teacher teach health ? Does she limit it to a fifteen-minute fore­noon class period? No, a consecrated teacher whose love for this cause has led her to become a church school teacher should have the funda­mental principles of health embodied in her own life, so that she not only teaches but lives them before the children and the community. Without saying so, she teaches the health principles in every class during the day.

Our teachers have had some opportunity to study the health principles from the denominational view­point. Recently many have availed themselves of the classes in Red Cross Home Nursing in their communities. Thus they have been enabled to meet school emergencies better, and also have es­tablished a place for themselves in their communi­ties where Seventh-day Adventists are not very well known. A wide-awake health teacher uses every opportunity to improve herself, and to gain more knowledge to pass on to the children. This brings me to the danger which threatens every teacher, that of becoming so overworked herself that her own health is imperiled. Reading from Funda­mentals of Christian Education again, we find this warning given to the teacher:

"The teachers themselves should give proper attention to the laws of health, that they may preserve their own powers in the best possible condition, and by example as well as by precept, may exert a right influence upon their pupils. The teacher whose physical powers are already enfeebled by disease or overwork, should pay special attention to the laws of life. He should take time for recreation. He should not take upon himself responsibility outside of his schoolwork, which will so tax him, physically or mentally, that his nervous system will be unbalanced ; for in this case he will be unfitted to deal with minds, and cannot do justice to himself or to his pupils."—Page 147.

We are all living in a time when everyone is ex­pected to do more than the usual amount. Thus teachers, as well as all other classes of workers, are endeavoring to crowd too much into their own programs.

There are churches in which the church school teacher is expected not only to teach from eight-thirty in the morning to four or five in the after­noon but also to take home work to check at night, be the Missionary Volunteer leader of the church and also the Sabbath school secretary, attend the prayer meeting faithfully, and lead out in the church Ingathering campaign, as well as lead the church school band. This is not an exaggerated case. A teacher friend of mine just wrote that immediately upon her arrival at her new post of duty the Sabbath school superintendent met her and said that the church school teacher was always the Sabbath school secretary. The Missionary Volunteer leader then stepped up to inform her that she was to be the chorister of the Young People's Society.

Many teachers are too timid to say No to the many requests that come to them. Naturally teach­ers are anxious to succeed in their churches, and thus feel that they should accept all the positions of responsibility given to them. But the teacher who is not able to refuse some of these duties soon finds herself in a difficult situation. She becomes completely worn out, and her disposition suffers. Disciplinary problems come into the school, and irritation and friction result. The first work of the teacher is her teaching. Naturally she will regularly attend all the services of the church that she consistently can, and will do what she is able to do in church and community leadership.

We come now more particularly to the health of the children. Many children do poor schoolwork because they are not fed properly at home. A child with a headache will often say about ten o'clock in the morning, "I did not eat any breakfast, and I am so hungry." Teachers can help the parents on the health of the children in three ways :

1. Personal contacts with the parents. Visits are much more satisfactory than hastily written notes.

2. Educational programs in the Home and School Associati6n. Use the excellent available materials which are to be found in our own periodi­cals as well as suitable materials in secular maga­zines.

3. Securing the co-operation of the pastor that he may stress the subject of health in his sermons and also the Home and School meetings when this topic is presented. The teacher must win the con­fidence of the parents before they will take her advice in this matter as well as any other. Most parents, however, are more than anxious to re­ceive any help concerning their children and will come to the school to talk over with the teacher the problems of diet, exercise, habits, etc. In this way parents and teachers can be more united, and of course this adds much to the success of the school.

The proper diet of children, as has already been mentioned, contributes much to their success in classwork. I think of one eighth-grade boy who traveled five miles to come to school each day. He was uninterested in his schoolwork, morose, poorly adjusted socially, and very unhappy in school. After studying into the matter his teacher found that his home condition was one which con­tributed much to his unhappiness. His mother was an invalid and he did most of the cooking. He had very little breakfast in the morning, did not bring lunch to school with him, because it was too much trouble to put it up for himself, and then at night it was his responsibility to cook dinner for the family.

We were able to help the boy by showing him in our own cooking department at the school how to prepare a lunch for himself that he would enjoy, and also he learned how to prepare many dishes for the family. He took great pride in the fact that he was able to do this, brought his lunches to school regularly, and often showed them to his teacher for approval. His schoolwork improved, and his general attitude changed, mostly because of the fact that he was getting proper nourishment.

In closing, I would like to go back to the original thought that only as the teacher stays close to the Great Physician, who is also the Great Teacher, can she receive the wisdom, tact, and knowledge necessary to lead the boys and girls to know and live the great principles upon which our denomination was founded.                 

Miriam G. Tymeson


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Miriam G. Tymes

April 1945

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