A Pre-Service
Teacher’s Induction to Comprehensive School Health
Most likely if you are reading this,
you are already a seasoned teacher in the field, passionate about seeing
children and youth become healthy in mind, body and spirit. Good news, there
are more teachers coming your way with the same passion for Comprehensive
School Health! Pre-service teachers at the University of Calgary currently
engage in learning and discussion regarding Comprehensive School Health (CSH).
Each seminar, our cohort discussed the connections between education and
health—mental, emotional and physical.
Designing,
participating and engaging in a university level course specifically around
Comprehensive School Health (CSH) shows the directive shift and importance of
the education system taking health seriously. As a pre-service teacher, having
a course requirement to learn about CSH is a statement about the value of
health moving beyond just physical education teachers. CSH is a responsibility from all education
partners, including: admin, teachers, parents, community stakeholders and
students, to think about, and act on, what it means to be healthy. Thinking
about positive steps towards mental wellness, physical wellness, school culture
and the four pillars of CSH, gives me the flexibility and tenacity to bring
these into my teaching practices.
When I envision myself as a health
champion, I picture a teacher who incorporates social-emotional learning in
classroom and provides a space for the conditions where students can learn,
thrive and grow as citizens in society. Before embarking on the journey of
becoming a teacher, in working front-line with adults and youth experiencing
homelessness, addictions and mental health issues, I saw the extremes of
unchecked trauma and mental illness. I encountered stories from young adults (20-24)
who had expressed how difficult school was, and how they felt no one cared for
them or believed in them. The more I worked in the front-line, the more I felt
the need to work with youth in schools in order to foster resiliency skills for
young people to become healthier adults. Teaching provides the avenue for
ongoing realistic change. It is encouraging to have Comprehensive School Health
education for future teachers and students, as it is clear that students can
only learn when they feel safe, valued, heard and healthy.
The CSH course provided me with
further inspiration to foster healthy attitudes and behaviours with students.
In front line work, we often talked about how we model healthy attachment
models for our clients who have experienced many adverse experiences in their
childhood, whether they are aware, it is powerful for people to have healing
adult figures in their lives to help model physically and emotionally healthy
lives, and responses to stressors. Comprehensive school health (CSH) is needed
as “research has shown [CSH] is an effective way to enhance [the] linkage
improving both health and educational outcomes and encouraging healthy
behaviours that last a lifetime” (Joint Consortium for Health, n.d., p. 1).
This course has continued to solidify my ideas in incorporating holistic
education that goes beyond academic growth. I often think about the young
adults I worked with who were homeless, and wonder if their well-being was
considered in a comprehensive way, could their present reality be different?
This course, coupled with my experiences, solidify my belief that healthy
behaviours and attitudes towards students will provide the conditions for them
to feel safe to explore health themselves.
In many ways this course has validated
my goals as a burgeoning teacher, to be a champion for my students' social-emotional
health. I truly believe that if students can learn how to gain self-efficacy
skills and self-regulation skills then they will be able to be better equipped
with to deal with anxiety and recover from stressful situations as the Canadian
Education Association (n.d.) has found. The CSH courses were comprehensive in
providing an understanding of body image, mental health, toxic stress and other
areas. However, I believe one area that I would like to future explore as a
teacher is how to manage teacher well-being. One of the surprising ways the
course has impacted me is hearing the level of stress and anxiety from fellow
colleagues. When teachers are considering many layers of teaching and learning,
curriculum, program of studies, CSH, when do teachers have the time to focus on
their own mental health and be champions for themselves? I believe that in
order to truly teach students how to be healthy and to have a growth mindset, I
will need to be critically reflective and take the time to foster my own
health. I am mindful of burnout in education. While CSH addresses health for
students, considering attrition rates in teachers, whether it be from stress,
mismanagement of time, disillusionment with education, mental health etc., a
future for myself as a teacher is to take time in understanding teacher
well-being.
In the future, I hope to be a health
champion for my students and to be a champion for my colleagues and peers, as
life is increasingly hectic and teaching is busy. As I continue to teach, I
want to balance the stressors in life but also find joy, resilience, and
self-growth in order to be a health champion for my colleagues and students.
References
Canadian Education Association (n.d.). How can we best
support student mental wellbeing?
support-student-mental-well-being
Joint Consortium for School Health. (n.d.) What is
comprehensive school health?. Retrieved from http://www.jcsh-cces.ca/images/What_is_Comprehensive_School_Health_-_2-
pager_-_July_2016.pdf.
Submitted by: Sarah Lee, University of Calgary, Faculty of Education Student
