Is health and physical education beneficial enough to students to keep Essay

Is health and physical education beneficial enough to students to keep in our school systems - Essay Example 7) However, school curriculum should not be confined to teaching academic subjects that hone the students’ intellectual skills. The personality and behavior of an individual is developed through absorbing diverse issues that shape their needs, preferences and actions. Individuals do not exist in a nutshell; they interact, relate, and behave in specific manners which eventually affect their health. According to Kolbe (1993 p. 12), â€Å"the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that most major health problems in the United States today are caused by six categories of behavior: behaviors that lead to intentional and unintentional injuries; smoking; alcohol and other drug use; sexual behaviors leading to sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection, and unintended pregnancy; poor nutrition; and lack of physical activity†. He further emphasized that â€Å"behaviors and attitudes about health that are initiated during childhood are responsible for most of the leading causes of death, illness, and disability in the United States today. Comprehensive school health education programs represent one effective way of providing students with the knowledge and skills to prevent health-impairing behaviors.† (Kolbe 1993 p. 13) The schools’ curriculum should include subjects which promote health and physical education to enforce correct behavioral patter ns at a young age and continue this positive reinforcement until adulthood. Therefore, health promotion and physical education in the schools is of critical importance. There has been the underlying belief that â€Å"if young people (5-18 years) receive basic knowledge about a health issue, they will adopt appropriate health enhancing behaviours. Most school health programs, projects and packages were designed based on this belief. However, research in the last 20 years suggests that the provision of information will lead to behavior change approach is