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0 r LJ.S. School Systcui-The Countdown Ilas Bcbun For New I'ro grauis in Ilealth and Family Living by Virginia Schroeder Burnham* Scientific progress has brought many chronic dis- eases within our powers of correction or control. There still exists, however, a deplorable lag between what the scientist knows and what the public does. In particular, there is an acknowledged lack of infor- mation concerning good health habits and preventive medical techniques which are essential to the main- tenance of optimum health. It also is generally con- ceded that an accelerating social disintegration is taking place today. Ours is not a Great Society, it is being said, ours is a Sick Society. The evidence of our failures in health education and family life takes many forms. Life expectancy has not been extended in the over 40 age group. It is a national disgrace that our country stands 15th in Mrs. Burnham survival of infants during their first year. Venereal disease in- fects more than 250,000 young persons annually. In one re- cent year, abortions performed on high school age girls exceeded 180,000. Every year we author- ize and spend billions of dollars to solve the problems of alcohol- ism, delinquency, mental illness, retardation, suicide, narcotic ad- diction and other manifestations of inadequate human development. All of this is not news, nor has it hap- pened overnight. But if we are to reverse these down- hill trends-and reach the levels of environmental health and family living to which we aspire-a con- certed national effort must be undertaken. Restructure the Schools: What better medium have we for changing habits and attitudes and establishing an understanding than the learning process to which young people are exposed throughout their long 13 years of schooling? My proposal, therefore, is to in- troduce a program of health maintenance and prep- aration for family life into the schools of our nation. Starting at kindergarten and continuing through the 12 grades, the curriculum would be planned to pro- vide (1) adequate instruction in good health habits for prevention, early detection, and control of dis- ease, and (2) reinforcement of the home as the basic unit of society through preparation for marriage, parenthood, and family life. Support from Many Sources: The momentum to sustain this proposal is anticipated from many responsible sources. It is significant, for example, that Congress has already seen fit to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to include the training and retraining of teachers in these subject areas-and has made federal funds available for this purpose. Moreover, the National Commission on Community Health Services has stated: "Health education must become a fundamental part of the basic balanced curriculum [in schoolsj. It can be effectively taught in school, f and no other public agency today offers health in- struction to children of school age." Health Education Today: According to one recent sur- vey of U.S. schools, health instruction is not only inadequate, it is virtually nonexistent. In recent years, however, some schools in Cleveland, Los Angeles, Roanoke, Washington, D.C., and several other cities have introduced a comprehensive health-and-family-life curriculum for all grade levels. Others can be expected to follow their example in time. Although parental and community resistance to classroom discussions of sex is a continuing prob- lem, the National Congress of Parents and Teachers has fully endorsed a sex education program for all schools. Family Living Today: It is within the family that most social learning takes place-a good deal of it through example set by the parents. It is through the family that we learn how to live with others, that we learn honesty, decency, cleanliness, fairness, obedience, discipline, and most important-love. Basically, the family does two things: it insures physical survival and builds the essential humanness of the individual. Thus the family is the basic unit of society. Yet, to a large segment of our population, the family and the home are no longer considered of much signifi- cance. We live in an era of crime and delinquency at , all social levels-and the symptoms are too familiar to recite here again. It is my conviction, therefore, that preventive measures are needed. It is my contention they should take the form of educational preparation for family life and parenthood. In a few short years, our young people of today will marry and produce a new generation. Will this be done in a healthy home atmosphere-or will the sorry record we have made be repeated? Preparing for Prevention: In this brief space, it has been possible to present only the highlights of a multi-disciplinary concept. National interest and acceptance must be sought and initiated, even while state and local boards of education are being offered a choice of curricula to suit their needs and require- ments. It is also a regrettable fact that most physi- cians-as well as teachers-need further training in sex education and preventive medicine. Each premature death from disease is a personal tragedy, but each preventable death is a national reproach. Since more and more parents are abdicating their responsibilities, education in the schools is the best way to revitalize the family and its role in our society. Most efforts to date, however, have focused on finding cures, rather than correcting the causes. The time is already upon us to recognize that pre- vention, not cure, is our only hope for the future- and it must begin with the children. *htrs. Burnhana is president of Connecticut Manufactur- ing Co., Inc. •(metal fabricators) and has served as a director or member of numerous government, comrnu- nity, and non-profit agencies concerned with public health and medical research. Recently she was appointed the chairman of a volunteer committee to organize a Con- necticut division of The American Health Foundation. 7