The voices of children in health education

Abstract

One of the main objectives in health education in the New Zealand national curriculum is that students should be helped to take responisbility for their own health. However, most decisions about health programmes in primary schools are made by adults.

This paper reports findings from a study which sought the views of primary children about their knowledge of helath and their preference for health educaiton content.

Children knew more than adults probably realised, but had little say in what they studied. Older primary children knew about controversial topics like drugs and sexuality.

However, there were many gaps in their knowledge and they wanted to cover these in health lessons.

There are, therefore, implication for school health programmes.