In the last of lectures, my group made a presentation about cocaine and we watched other groups presenting their particular drug. The presentations were all very well prepared and informative, they reinforced my understanding on each drug. This is a very effective teaching approach, and I found it quite enjoyable by learning from my fellow classmates. The content of the presentation provide us a good example of what a proper drug education should include. It involves the scientific information and the notion of holistic health. It was a very meaningful assignment, and the presentations provide us useful ideas for our teaching in the future.
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In the article of "I don't know anyone that has two drinks a day" by Harrison et al, it shows the alcohol consumption guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia, in contrast with the youth drinking culture and their attitude towards drinking. By and large, the health promotions in Australia and many countries in the world despite the pleasurable factors of drinking alcohol. For the young people who have experienced the pleasurable aspects of alcohol, they are aware of the danger of alcohol and they know their limits. The health promotions seems to have limited effects on them. Controlling young people's drinking behaviors by solely exposing the negative aspects of alcohol, this will only increase students doubt and curiosity. Therefore, our drug education presentation has to include the positive aspects of the drug.
During my practicum at Takapuna Grammar School, the year 10 students were conducting the sex education unit. Because I did not have time to build the constructive rapport with the students, I took a observational role in these year 10 lessons. The two lessons I observed were "contraception" and "STIs". Compare to the year 9 unit, these two lesson took a more scientific approach, and have relatively less emphasis on holistic health.
In these two lessons, the lesson was quite teacher centred. Especially the STIs lesson, the teacher used a PowerPoint to explain each disease's cause, symptoms, degree of seriousness, methods of testing, etc. Majority of the information in the lessons are based on scientific facts and information. Such medicalised ways of understanding health issues as Crawford mentioned in his "healthism" article, may led to students over-emphasizing personal responsibility in health. Becuase the focus of these scientific information is mainly about a person's decisions. However, these lessons did not completely overlook the influence of social and cultural factors in health. For example, in the contraception class, the teacher asked the reason behind unprotected sex. Some of the students mentioned the accessibility of condoms in shops, and how it is embarrassing to purchase condoms. Therefore, general questions like this could trigger meaningful and constructive class discussions. It encourage students to adapt a sociocultural perspective in current health issues. At my practicum in Takapuna Grammar School, the year 9 classes were working on the puberty unit. By the end of the unit, each student had to design a pamphlet introducing puberty to intermediate school students. Although I had missed majority of these puberty lessons, I managed to supervise their pamphlet designing lessons for the last two weeks of the term.
I repeated multiple each lesson that the pamphlets had to be "meaningful" and "appropriate". Holistic health would be a prefect guidance for the students. Thus, I reinforced the idea of hauora individually for those who had no clue how to start, and for those who drew "inappropriate figures" on their pamphlets. As I went through their course booklet with them, and started to brainstorm some of the physical, emotional, social and spiritual changes in male and female puberty. It made an excellent starting point for the students because the general direction had became less ambiguous. I found it very difficult to explain the spiritual changes in puberty. When I revisit Durie's article, the taha wairua aspect of the Whare Tapa Wha model only explain what is significant to Maori people. I could not figure out puberty has anything to do with the human/environment relationship, especially for a non-religious student. However, after the reflection of the practicum, I figured out the spiritual aspect is closely linked with the sense of identity. Maori relationship with the land is a form of identity, as well as religion. For a non-religious person an identity is equally spiritual and significant. Therefore, change of identity could be one of the spiritual changes in puberty. The health and wellbeing of secondary school students in New Zealand: Result for young people attracted to same sex or both sexs.
In this 2007 survey, it shows the mental health status of a particular group of young people, the same or both sex attracted students. A group that is usually marginalized by the school environment, and the society. Compare to the 2001 survey, although there were some improvements in the health and wellbeing of same or both sex attracted students, yet they did not experience the same improvements as their opposite sex attracted peers. Majority of the same/both sex attracted students had reported good and supportive relationships with their peers, and felt satisfy with their life. But there were still some very alarming finding, such as: "It is of particular concern that approximately half of the same/both-sex-attracted students surveyed had deliberately self-harmed in the previous year and more than a third had seriously thought about attempting suicide" (p. 2). Self-harm and suicide both are very serious issue that are directly or indirectly linked to the students' mental status. More importantly, the social environment that affected same/both sex attracted students' wellbeing: "More than half had been hit or physically harmed by another person in the previous 12 months. Of those that had been bullied, a third had been bullied because they were gay or people thought they were gay, and one in five continued to be afraid that someone would hurt or bother them at school. The majority had not come out to others, and most same/both-sex-attracted students felt that they could not talk to their family about their sexuality. Twice as many same/both sex-attracted as opposite-sex-attracted students had run away from home overnight" (p. 2). So what are the social and cultural factors behind such attitude and behavior towards same/both sex attracted students? What can the we do to improve this situation? It is time for school and the society to re-evaluate their stand on same/both sex attracted people, and create a more inclusive environment for them. I am glad that I was able to attend the Wednesday tutorial with Darren before I fly to Hong Kong on Thursday. Darren suggested two readings before he ended the week, they are: "the governmentality of childhood obesity: coca-cola, public health and primary schools" and "this cynical five a day myth: nutrition expert claims we've all been duped". The first reading reminds me of some familiar phrase such as, neoliberalism, cocacolonization, cooperate globalization, etc. Interesting phrases made it a very enjoyable read.
The Monday lecture was by far the most profound lecture this year. We discussed about the reading on Maori Health Perspectives (Durie, 1998). The article discovers the difference between people's values and attitude towards health & well-being. It compares Maori health value with Western medical ideas, and explores models of Hauora (Maori wellbeing). In a way, the lecture provoked our subjective views on health and well being, plus a few other issues.
The notion of "healthiness" is similar to beauty standards, it varies in different cultural, physical and temporal settings. For instance, a person may deem to be healthy in the West, may not receive the same recognition in the East. Moreover, the notion shifts from time to time as well. What is right in a particular cultural perspective, may consider as wrong in a different cultural perspective. People with multiple cultural background and experience seem to understand this better. The marae experience from last semester encouraged us to think outside the box. More importantly, it forced us to get out from our comfort zone and to put ourselves into someone else's shoes. Furthermore, in the middle of the lecture, Katie mentioned colonization and the peak of British Empire. I heard a little chant of excitement from some of the fellow students. I was very disappointed by this reaction. I think there were two reasons behind this reaction: 1, they have never studied British history. 2, they are imperialist. It is pointless and almost heartbreaking to make further hypothetical judgement. From my point of view, indeed, there are pros and cons for colonization. To some extent, without colonization I would not be here today. However, the history of colonization was not that glorious. When teaching health and PE, we need to be aware of our perceptions of self and others. This means to disclose our inherent subjective views and bias, and avoid snap judgement and marginalization. 09/08/2014 Youth is our future. Meanwhile, around 8000 children in Gaza are needing psychosocial support, the number will continue to increase. I thought about this when I was supervising the cheerful children at work...
This week Katie had introduced us the Youth 2000 survey. It is a very interesting report, because some of us have left school for a few years already. We may not fully understand the demography in occur schools, and what are students' perspectives in variety of issues related to health, ethnicity, school, social relationship, economic background, etc. Issues that play a big part in students health and well-being. This document is important especially for me, because I had only attended one year of high school in New Zealand (year 13). It did not provide me any advantage in regards to these issues that exist in NZ schools. Looking at a micro-scale, there are multiple factors that influence our subjective views. The report has divided students according to their family financial background, this indicates class difference plays a big role in this society. Therefore, just because I grew up from a relatively more fortunate background, it doesn't mean majority of people share the same ideas and opportunities. Besides, the report indicates gender difference, male and female youth may hold different perspectives on a variety of issues. Looking at a macro-scale, different social-political environments shape youth's attitude and perspective in a range of matters. Due to my upbringing, I felt an urge to keep in touch with the youth demography in Hong Kong. I have done a little comparison between Youth 2000 in NZ and Youth Trends In Hong Kong 2013. There are a few major difference between the two reports, and one of them is "participation and engagement". In the NZ report, it mentions "community and contribution", this only include youth employment and their affiliation to church, sport team, etc. However, in the Hong Kong report, the category extends to youth social awareness, environmental awareness, political participation, etc. This has shown the dynamics and political climate of the society directly influence youth's view and attitude. 02/08/2014 First blog entry, so let's talk about health and my perspective of well-being! In the first semester of 2014, the first essay question for EDUC142 (Health and Physical Education in a Diverse Society) was; "what are important to your health and well-being?". With no preconception on the meaning of "well-being", students had created different answers for this essay question. I answered with "happiness and contentment" as the key to my well-being. Whereas other classmates might have different sets of value, thus the philosophy of well-being varies between individuals.
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