Health B is pointless

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid started Health B today. They said they've been learning the same stuff since 6th grade. Even doing the same assignments.

What a waste. Either make it really meaningful (not sure how...it would have to be done in-person to be meaningful so they can do stuff like really learn CPR/put a condom on a banana/stuff like that) or just drop it. Replace it with a finance class or driver's ed. Or even a free period so the kids could have a study hall (having time in their schedules for a study hall would do so much more to help their stress than a class talking about ways to reduce stress)

You tell your kid just once to use a seatbelt and they always do? Tell them just once not to eat junk food before dinner? Tell them just once to look both ways? Tell them just once of the ills of smoking or drugs? Just once about safe sex?

Some stuff needs repeating before it really sinks in. At home and in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started Health B today. They said they've been learning the same stuff since 6th grade. Even doing the same assignments.

What a waste. Either make it really meaningful (not sure how...it would have to be done in-person to be meaningful so they can do stuff like really learn CPR/put a condom on a banana/stuff like that) or just drop it. Replace it with a finance class or driver's ed. Or even a free period so the kids could have a study hall (having time in their schedules for a study hall would do so much more to help their stress than a class talking about ways to reduce stress)

You tell your kid just once to use a seatbelt and they always do? Tell them just once not to eat junk food before dinner? Tell them just once to look both ways? Tell them just once of the ills of smoking or drugs? Just once about safe sex?

Some stuff needs repeating before it really sinks in. At home and in school.

Funny. They don’t apply that logic to other classes. Like Math.

MCPS teaches Math concepts once and then moves on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started Health B today. They said they've been learning the same stuff since 6th grade. Even doing the same assignments.

What a waste. Either make it really meaningful (not sure how...it would have to be done in-person to be meaningful so they can do stuff like really learn CPR/put a condom on a banana/stuff like that) or just drop it. Replace it with a finance class or driver's ed. Or even a free period so the kids could have a study hall (having time in their schedules for a study hall would do so much more to help their stress than a class talking about ways to reduce stress)

You tell your kid just once to use a seatbelt and they always do? Tell them just once not to eat junk food before dinner? Tell them just once to look both ways? Tell them just once of the ills of smoking or drugs? Just once about safe sex?

Some stuff needs repeating before it really sinks in. At home and in school.

Funny. They don’t apply that logic to other classes. Like Math.

MCPS teaches Math concepts once and then moves on.

So MCPS teaches addition, or exponents, or the PEMDAS rule, and kids never solve a single problem using those ever again?

[Anonymous]

Math and Health are apples and oranges. I get why the state would devote 1 semester to it, but 2 is really too much. Combined with MCPS 2 semesters.of PE credit, it seems to be the health/PE teacher lobby that supports this!

[Anonymous]

The state should replace the second semester of health with a semester of financial
Literacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started Health B today. They said they've been learning the same stuff since 6th grade. Even doing the same assignments.

What a waste. Either make it really meaningful (not sure how...it would have to be done in-person to be meaningful so they can do stuff like really learn CPR/put a condom on a banana/stuff like that) or just drop it. Replace it with a finance class or driver's ed. Or even a free period so the kids could have a study hall (having time in their schedules for a study hall would do so much more to help their stress than a class talking about ways to reduce stress)

You tell your kid just once to use a seatbelt and they always do? Tell them just once not to eat junk food before dinner? Tell them just once to look both ways? Tell them just once of the ills of smoking or drugs? Just once about safe sex?

Some stuff needs repeating before it really sinks in. At home and in school.

Studies show this kind of lecturing teens doesn’t work (“Just say no!”), so it’s a complete waste of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started Health B today. They said they've been learning the same stuff since 6th grade. Even doing the same assignments.

What a waste. Either make it really meaningful (not sure how...it would have to be done in-person to be meaningful so they can do stuff like really learn CPR/put a condom on a banana/stuff like that) or just drop it. Replace it with a finance class or driver's ed. Or even a free period so the kids could have a study hall (having time in their schedules for a study hall would do so much more to help their stress than a class talking about ways to reduce stress)

You tell your kid just once to use a seatbelt and they always do? Tell them just once not to eat junk food before dinner? Tell them just once to look both ways? Tell them just once of the ills of smoking or drugs? Just once about safe sex?

Some stuff needs repeating before it really sinks in. At home and in school.

Funny. They don’t apply that logic to other classes. Like Math.

MCPS teaches Math concepts once and then moves on.

No, math circles back again and again, expanding on topics. English does, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish health b taught CPR and First Aid. You know, something useful.

If Health B students could graduate the class with an optional CPR certification, that would be so useful! My son did that at summer camp in 8th grade.

Also maybe home safety, such as checking your home's CO detector, how to touch someone who just got electrocuted before doing CPR, why you can't shelter under a tree in a storm, what not to put in a microwave, etc... I had a little Usborne book about survival skills as a child in the UK, and it had all these things in it (also a large section on survival in the wild).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid started Health B today. They said they've been learning the same stuff since 6th grade. Even doing the same assignments.

What a waste. Either make it really meaningful (not sure how...it would have to be done in-person to be meaningful so they can do stuff like really learn CPR/put a condom on a banana/stuff like that) or just drop it. Replace it with a finance class or driver's ed. Or even a free period so the kids could have a study hall (having time in their schedules for a study hall would do so much more to help their stress than a class talking about ways to reduce stress)

You tell your kid just once to use a seatbelt and they always do? Tell them just once not to eat junk food before dinner? Tell them just once to look both ways? Tell them just once of the ills of smoking or drugs? Just once about safe sex? No

Some stuff needs repeating before it really sinks in. At home and in school.

Funny. They don’t apply that logic to other classes. Like Math.

MCPS teaches Math concepts once and then moves on.

No, math circles back again and again, expanding on topics. English does, too.

Math is the exact example I used for my kid who was complaining about learning the same topics in HS Health they covered in middle school. If they’re learning the same content, it’s more of an issue, but clearly 10th graders and 6th graders need to know different things about sex and drugs, just like 1st graders and 3rd graders need to know different things about fractions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish health b taught CPR and First Aid. You know, something useful.

If Health B students could graduate the class with an optional CPR certification, that would be so useful! My son did that at summer camp in 8th grade.

Also maybe home safety, such as checking your home's CO detector, how to touch someone who just got electrocuted before doing CPR, why you can't shelter under a tree in a storm, what not to put in a microwave, etc... I had a little Usborne book about survival skills as a child in the UK, and it had all these things in it (also a large section on survival in the wild).

Yeah, there is probably a way they could make it useful but they haven’t done that. I took it by correspondence course from BYU and it was an intro level class for nursing students. It covered a lot of really interesting stuff including basic first aid, how to read a CBC and what all those different tests mean. They could talk about what cancer screens are done and why, and even the debates about whether to screen at 40 or 45 or 50. They could talk about different methods in drug addiction treatment, why they are so challenging, and why they fail so often.
But no one bothered to develop that class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish health b taught CPR and First Aid. You know, something useful.

If Health B students could graduate the class with an optional CPR certification, that would be so useful! My son did that at summer camp in 8th grade.

Also maybe home safety, such as checking your home's CO detector, how to touch someone who just got electrocuted before doing CPR, why you can't shelter under a tree in a storm, what not to put in a microwave, etc... I had a little Usborne book about survival skills as a child in the UK, and it had all these things in it (also a large section on survival in the wild).

Yeah, there is probably a way they could make it useful but they haven’t done that. I took it by correspondence course from BYU and it was an intro level class for nursing students. It covered a lot of really interesting stuff including basic first aid, how to read a CBC and what all those different tests mean. They could talk about what cancer screens are done and why, and even the debates about whether to screen at 40 or 45 or 50. They could talk about different methods in drug addiction treatment, why they are so challenging, and why they fail so often.
But no one bothered to develop that class.

They don’t have to “develop” that class. Back in the 80s, my required health class covered:
sex ed
drug/alcohol information
CPR (we were all certified)
the Heimlich
first aid
nutrition (what purpose various vitamins and minerals had, and diseases caused by nutritional diseases)
an overview of general diseases/health conditions (signs of melanoma, stroke, etc.)
disease transmission (vaccinations, hygiene, parasites, etc.)
basic anatomy/functioning of organ systems
etc.

MCPS doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find someone, somewhere, doing something that works and do what they do. I know a lot of people seem to think textbooks (like we had in my ‘80s class) are passé, but the delivery method doesn’t matter, as long as you are transmitting CONTENT. I don’t care if it’s a print textbook, an ebook, an app, a website, etc., just stop using our kids as guinea pigs and use something that’s already been effective at teaching kids something substantive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish health b taught CPR and First Aid. You know, something useful.

If Health B students could graduate the class with an optional CPR certification, that would be so useful! My son did that at summer camp in 8th grade.

Also maybe home safety, such as checking your home's CO detector, how to touch someone who just got electrocuted before doing CPR, why you can't shelter under a tree in a storm, what not to put in a microwave, etc... I had a little Usborne book about survival skills as a child in the UK, and it had all these things in it (also a large section on survival in the wild).

Yeah, there is probably a way they could make it useful but they haven’t done that. I took it by correspondence course from BYU and it was an intro level class for nursing students. It covered a lot of really interesting stuff including basic first aid, how to read a CBC and what all those different tests mean. They could talk about what cancer screens are done and why, and even the debates about whether to screen at 40 or 45 or 50. They could talk about different methods in drug addiction treatment, why they are so challenging, and why they fail so often.
But no one bothered to develop that class.

They don’t have to “develop” that class. Back in the 80s, my required health class covered:
sex ed
drug/alcohol information
CPR (we were all certified)
the Heimlich
first aid
nutrition (what purpose various vitamins and minerals had, and diseases caused by nutritional diseases)
an overview of general diseases/health conditions (signs of melanoma, stroke, etc.)
disease transmission (vaccinations, hygiene, parasites, etc.)
basic anatomy/functioning of organ systems
etc.

MCPS doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel. Find someone, somewhere, doing something that works and do what they do. I know a lot of people seem to think textbooks (like we had in my ‘80s class) are passé, but the delivery method doesn’t matter, as long as you are transmitting CONTENT. I don’t care if it’s a print textbook, an ebook, an app, a website, etc., just stop using our kids as guinea pigs and use something that’s already been effective at teaching kids something substantive.

Because pedagogy never changes. Communities never change. Drugs never change. Yep.

[Anonymous]

My child took Health A last summer.

Way too much time devoted to genital warts. If one suspects genital warts, shouldn’t they see a dr? Why must kids know which warts are which????

The 15 minutes devoted to CPR seemed insulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish health b taught CPR and First Aid. You know, something useful.

Seriously. We had the option to get Red Cross certified when I took Health (one semester) in 10th grade. They taught everyone the material, and you could pay to take the test and get certified if you wanted.

We also had a full semester of Driver’s Ed in 10th. Almost everyone took it, but it wasn’t a requirement or anything. It just made so much sense for kids that age to do one semester of each. (This wasn’t MCPS)

My DS just took Health A in summer school and they taught wound bandaging (only bad grade he got in the class, won't count on him in an accident ) and learned CPR using a pillow. But I agree that I can't imagine what they teach in Health B.