Something To Talk About

Healthy School Communities

Here's something to talk about with your child or with another parent: If we gave our children permission to run our schools healthcare programs, do you think they would volunteer to discard both their parents? Would they throw away even one loving and responsible parent? Would they exclude all fathers the way that Abbotsford Family Court judges often do daily?

I got these children's health ideas from Dr. Lawrence St. Leger, who is a Honorary Professor of Deakin University School of Health and Social Development in Australia. When this Professor started encouraging leadership skills in Grade 6 and 7 students at Albert McMann Elementary, it increased their feelings of well-being and self-confidence. He quotes a study about this concept titled "Locus of Control at Age 10 Years and Health Outcomes and Behaviours at Age 30 years," which sounds like an amazing longitudinal study. These young children were given a questionairre to assess how much control they had over their lives and then were re-surveyed 20 years later, at age 30.

This study showed that the more control we have as children, the better our health as adults. They rated their overall health as better, were less likely to be overweight or obese, and less likely to be psychologically stressed. This is no surprise to doctors who know that the more control we have over our lives as adults, the better our health. We exercise more, get medical checkups more often, eat a better diet, and this all translates to less heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and less psychological illness. What this study suggests is if these character traits persist through childhood, they also continue through adulthood for a healthy adulthood.

So the work Albert McMann Elementary is doing is terrific! The more we can give kids control over their lives - the evidence is now overwhelming - the better their health will be.

Healthy school communities are all about working with kids where they have some sense of ownership and sense of control about what goes on in the community.

Only 91 days left till International Parental Alienation Awareness Day.