By the time most people enter college – whether they’re recent high school graduates or continuing their education later in life – their health habits, or lack thereof, are fairly well established.
Still, a recommendation by Everett Community College’s board of trustees to require health and wellness classes in order to graduate is an idea faculty members should seriously consider adopting. Focusing on the entire student, not just the brain, is a concept that makes sense and one that educators have been exploring at the K-12 level and even much earlier in life.
University students are some of the busiest, most stressed-out people in the world. Community college students are no different. In fact, these students are often taking full class loads and working at the same time – sometimes holding down full-time jobs and raising families. It’s not uncommon for nutrition and exercise to be put on the back burner while students focus on their coursework.
A three-credit class covering nutrition, cross-cultural medicine and other issues, along with a two-credit physical education class, is a reasonable approach to tackling our country’s growing health issues one person at a time. That’s just one suggestion EvCC is considering right now, and others may prove worthy, too. Many college campuses across the nation are doing the same thing. Whatever approach EvCC adopts, focusing on giving students the tools they need to make healthy decisions for life benefits all of us.
As our state’s K-12 and higher education officials work together to improve student learning and produce a competitive workforce, health and wellness must be a part of that. Recent news stories about principals canceling recess or cutting gym classes from the curriculum in order to spend more classroom time preparing for tests are alarming. Students, parents and educators are debating the removal of pop machines from schools and replacing them with more nutritional food choices in vending machines. Other schools are making the news for their efforts to bring healthier and popular lunch choices to their students.
Starting at the grade school level, even earlier, and carrying the important message of healthy living through college is an idea that makes sense and serves our students well.
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