Palm Springs — Health class is on its way out at Palm Springs Unified School District.
The board of education voted unanimously and without discussion Tuesday to eliminate health as a graduation requirement.
“We're trying to provide as much opportunity during the school day for students to take courses that will help them do math and read and write better,” said Brian Murray, director of secondary curriculum and instruction.
Schools are not required to provide a full health class, but topics such as HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention and drug and alcohol abuse and prevention must be taught.
These topics will be folded into biology curriculum in Palm Springs Unified, most likely in the final month of the year after state testing is finished, Murray said.
“We're still teaching the important subjects that students need to know about, but we're not taking a semester to do it,” he said.
Lessons on nutrition may be covered in physical education classes. The district is still working on how other topics, such as birth control and other sexual health issues, Murray said.
Basing these topics on science may be beneficial for students, said Pete A'Hearn, district science specialist.
“It's not about an adult persuading a kid,” he said. “It's not emotion. It's fact.”
A'Hearn, who has taught both health and biology and will work on the new curriculum, said that if done well, combining the classes could strengthen both: health concepts will give a real-life hook to biology and biology classes will add a scientific component to health.
Health class proponents fear that cramming it into another class will dilute important curriculum.
“There's always an unintended consequence of moving it out of a course and the quality is always less,” Mary Marks, school health education consultant for the California Department of Education, said in July.
“Health is usually the one that gives, because there's less accountability to it.”
Desert Sands Unified School District eliminated health as a graduation requirement this summer, inciting outcry from teachers, parents and students.
Conversely, none of the five audience members at the Palm Springs Unified spoke about the change.
Coachella Valley Unified requires one semester of health.
Health class is important, but doesn't require an entire semester, said Cathedral City High School junior Solomon Worlds.
“I know high school is supposed to just be about general education, but a lot of people start to specialize,” said the 16-year-old, who wants to take an additional music class that the current health requirement doesn't leave room for in his schedule.
But mom Esmeralda Guzmán said she thinks health topics are more important.
“I actually learned a lot” from health class, particularly about sexual health her son Jiovanni, 15, said.
Source:
mydesert.com
The board of education voted unanimously and without discussion Tuesday to eliminate health as a graduation requirement.
“We're trying to provide as much opportunity during the school day for students to take courses that will help them do math and read and write better,” said Brian Murray, director of secondary curriculum and instruction.
Schools are not required to provide a full health class, but topics such as HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention and drug and alcohol abuse and prevention must be taught.
These topics will be folded into biology curriculum in Palm Springs Unified, most likely in the final month of the year after state testing is finished, Murray said.
“We're still teaching the important subjects that students need to know about, but we're not taking a semester to do it,” he said.
Lessons on nutrition may be covered in physical education classes. The district is still working on how other topics, such as birth control and other sexual health issues, Murray said.
Basing these topics on science may be beneficial for students, said Pete A'Hearn, district science specialist.
“It's not about an adult persuading a kid,” he said. “It's not emotion. It's fact.”
A'Hearn, who has taught both health and biology and will work on the new curriculum, said that if done well, combining the classes could strengthen both: health concepts will give a real-life hook to biology and biology classes will add a scientific component to health.
Health class proponents fear that cramming it into another class will dilute important curriculum.
“There's always an unintended consequence of moving it out of a course and the quality is always less,” Mary Marks, school health education consultant for the California Department of Education, said in July.
“Health is usually the one that gives, because there's less accountability to it.”
Desert Sands Unified School District eliminated health as a graduation requirement this summer, inciting outcry from teachers, parents and students.
Conversely, none of the five audience members at the Palm Springs Unified spoke about the change.
Coachella Valley Unified requires one semester of health.
Health class is important, but doesn't require an entire semester, said Cathedral City High School junior Solomon Worlds.
“I know high school is supposed to just be about general education, but a lot of people start to specialize,” said the 16-year-old, who wants to take an additional music class that the current health requirement doesn't leave room for in his schedule.
But mom Esmeralda Guzmán said she thinks health topics are more important.
“I actually learned a lot” from health class, particularly about sexual health her son Jiovanni, 15, said.
Source:
mydesert.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment