INQUIRY INTO HEALTH AND SUSTAINABILITY
by Michael X. Yue
October 5, 2019
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An Inquiry into Human Virtues
What are the most important things in life? Money, fame, vacations? Everyone will answer this question differently, relative to their individual values and circumstances. There is no right or wrong answer. However, there are general themes and principles many people believe in - health. Whether you are eight or eighty, health is strong virtue that many embrace to achieve wellness and happiness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2016), the term health is defined as a "state of complete physical and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" since 1946.
REFLECTION
As a second generation, Chinese-Canadian in British Columbia, my views of health has changes, evolved, and progressed on a personal, social, cultural, and environmental level. In my early years, I learned that health is the opposite of sickness - if one is not healthy, then they are sick; so therefore, if you are not sick, you are healthy. However, as health literacy has evolved to more comprehensive, robust, and encapsulating principles to reflect health of (almost) all individuals, the perspective of wellness has changed accordingly.
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THE DYNAMIC NATURE OF HEALTH
Prior in 1995, Bowing conducted a quantitative research report on anecdotal surveys of individuals as an emerging inquiry into the virtues of human values. His preliminary analysis has strongly indicated that health-related quality of life principles and virtues were the leading views of happiness and desires. Majority of the participants proclaimed physical health and personal autonomy a key indication for quality of all lives.
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In 2001, the the WHO started a more inclusive framework for understanding health by adding more dimensions of complexity and comprehension and reflection of health and wellness - physical and mental, In the late 2000's a surgence of psychological and spiritual considerations to environmental health has added further inquiry into the nature of health (Pihkala, 2018). However, the definition for health means vague, assumptive, ambiguous, and non-definite - what is "health" exactly?
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If health is universally valued on a global scale, why should we not integrate healthy initiates on a educational and community level? I think that health is a dynamic expression of one's physical, mental, spiritual, cultural, and environmental state as a holistic embodiment of biological, physiological, and psychological needs, which exists and reflects on an individual spectrum.
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HEALTHY SCHOOLS
Healthy Schools is a progressive platform dedicated to increase the quality of life of all learners on an education and community level, with the emphasis of connectivity, activism, and health and wellness.
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Progress to a healthier high school
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In the past month, my colleagues and I have been part of a collaboration to improve health literacy at the high school. District 52 - Prince Rupert has began acknowledging and investing more into the Healthy Schools BC model. In the upcoming weeks, the school trustees are expected to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) declaration for Complete Streets for Prince Rupert (CS4PR). To learn more about CS2PR click here.
In addition, the high school has received from funding for the Ground-to-Table program with conjunction to the greenhouse learning commonspace. In the images below, it highlights a few harvest of vegetables from the this fall.
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healthy schools BC
Other progressive and modern initiatives includes indigenous reconciliation and truth, school spirit days, passion flex, local vegetable and fruit program, and breakfast program to promote a more healthy and resilient community at the high school.
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As I reviewed more in Healthy Schools BC, I learned more about the new Healthy Schools BC First Nations School Grant as part of reconciliation and truth of inclusive health with collaboration with the First Nation Health Authority.
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This holistic acknowledgement to support vulnerable indigenous learners is an important step for benefiting equity, rather than an equality-based approach for provincial funding - helping the communities which my need it the most. While Healthy Schools BC focused health on intrapersonal and interpersonal relationship building, PHE Physical Healthy Education Canada focused on physiological health through daily exercise.
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Physical and health education canada
As I reviewed Physical and Health Education (PHE) Canada's mission statement, there focus to invoke activism to physical activities are impactful and powerful to the healthy literacy of all learners through action-based learning and growing (PHE, 2010) - be inspired, get connected, and think like a leader.
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Are We Doing Enough?
As I began to reflect on my journey to a healthier me, a healthier you, a healthier we, and a healthier us on an individual, educational, community, and environmental level, we can always do better (Dalby et al., 2019; HCPT,2016; Morrison & Kirby, 2011). ParticipACTION has used physical activity data from Statistics Canada to convey that health of learners are not meeting expectations when it comes to the recommended physical activity of Canadian students (Colley et al., 2017). ParticipACTION gave a failing (F) grade to Canadian students for 24-Hour Movement Behaviours with dismal (D) passing grades for Physical Literacy, Physical Fitness, and Active Transportation, and Overall Physical Activity. However, that being said, out of the fourteen classes established by ParticipACTION, Canadian students scored four better (B) grades: Community and Environment, Sleep, School, and Organized School Programs.
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With a plethora of Healthy School programs in Bc such as Healthy Eating at School, Farm to School BC, Healthy Eating After School, BC School Fruit and Vegetable Nutritional Program, BC Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC), and etc., there is a need to increase the overall health of BC learners and all learners in Canada. This emphasis highlights the necessary need for dynamic, responsive, and impactful lifestyle changes for many emerging learners as they become more health aware in their journey as a lifelong learner.
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What I Have Learned
I have learned that people care, whether they are eight or they are eighty. I have seen this on an individual, personal, community, and environmental level within and beyond the classroom. I believe that students now a days are more aware of nutritions than previous generations before due to accessibility of knowledge, social media, and the internet. On a school level, we are trying to involve more students on an experiential level to encourage and transform learning through place-based and hands-on learning. These ingrained values has lead to major infrastructure and school programs at Charles Hays Secondary School such as the Greenhouse, Farm-to-Table Initiative, Ecospace Commons, and Outside farm. These progressive investments towards local sustainability and healthy nutrition are reflected in the students who are involved with the school community. I have learned that the word, "health" is not a dichotomous term that generalizes physical fitness or physiological health, it is more - and it will continue to be more than "just that" in the dynamic reflections to come. Through more active and frequent integration of the greenhouse, farm, and cooking programs at the high school, more rewarding opportunities for all learners, including students, educators, paraprofessionals, and parents. As the students are exposed more and get more involved into our school community of health activism, the underlying foundations of sustainability are reinforced in their dynamic mindsets. Only through locality and sustainability can a collaborative community thrive in the modern world. As emerging educator, I will incorporate interdisciplinary pedagogy for health and sustainability development in the new BC curriculum from a holistic lens - and I think can that bridge and enhance the farm and greenhouse program which we gratefully have at our school community.
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Healthier, one step at a time
REFERENCES
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Bowling, A. (1995). What things are important in people's lives? A survey of the public's judgements to inform scales of health related quality of life. Social Science and Medicine, 41(10), 1447-1462.
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Colley, R. C., Carson, V., Garriguet, D., Janssen, I., Roberts, K. C., & Tremblay M. S. (2017). Physical activity of Canadian children and youth, 2007 to 2015. Statistics Canada.
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Dalby, S., Horton, S., Mahon, R., & Thomaz, D. (2019). Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: Global Governance Challenges. Routledge.
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Dooris, M. (2009). Holistic and sustainable health improvement: the contribution of the settings-based approach to health promotion. Perspectives in Public Health, 129(1), 29-36.
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Harmonization Cancer Prevention Team (2016). Building bridges to collaborative success: An evidence-based, inter-agency primer for health promotion. Kelowna, BC: Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention. University of British Columbia.
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Morrison, W., & Kirby, P. (2011). Schools as a setting for promoting positive mental health: Better practices and perspectives. Joint Consortium for School Health.
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Nobel, J. (2007). Eco-anxiety: Something else to worry about. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9.
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Physical and Health Education Canada (PHE). (2010). What is the relationship between physical education and physical literacy? Physical and Heath Education Canada.
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Pihkala, P. (2018). Eco-anxiety, tragedy, and hope: Psychological and spiritual dimensions of climate change. Zygon: Journal of Science and Religion, 53(2), 545-569.
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Saracci, R. (1997). The World Health Organisation needs to reconsider its definition of health. British Medical Journal, 314(7091), 1409.
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World Health Organization. (2001). The World Health Report 2001: Mental health: new understanding, new hope. World Health Organization.
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World Health Organization. (2006). Constitution of the World Health Organization-Basic Documents-Forty. World Health Organization.
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Digital Citation
Yue, M. X. (2019). Inquiry into Health and Sustainability. TeacherMrYue. Retrieved from https://teachermryue.wixsite.com/mysite/health-schools-sustainable-developm
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