Promotion of social health among children requires collective efforts and appropriate skills. All people in the field of education have to think about this.
Role of teacher training institutes and other organisations
School teachers need a degree, diploma or certificates from a teacher training institute. There are a number of organisation concerned with school education. The syllabus of teacher training courses should include the topics of important issues for children of which health should be one.
Organisations such as NCERT, SCERT, DIET should periodically organise workshops, publish journals and provide inservice training programmes on health issues including social health.
Role of schools in promoting social health
Schools have a very significant role to play in the promotion of health and safety of children. They spend a lot of time in school in early years. School environment forms ideal setting for acquiring knowledge of healthy choices of food. It is in school that they participate in physical activity through sports, games, yoga, gymnastics, exercise and gain benefits of each. School helps children to learn social skills which assist in establishing lifelong healthy behavior. Children learn team spirit and training in rules and regulations of social wellbeing just as in the defense services, which are inbuilt in training of defense service personnel, so they work together as a team to protect our nation.
In order to promote social health, the school should have a positive environment where children mingle with teachers, peer group and non-teaching staff without fear and apprehensions. Teacher have a significant role in this regard.
Role of teachers
It is well known that teachers are the mentors and therefore, the teacher training institutes should make training in leadership and mentorship a part of teacher training. Also well known saying that ‘example in better than precept’ Students easily learn to be socially healthy if the teacher herself or himself sets an example rather than lecture on social health. A good teacher ensures that students grow up into physically, mentally and socially healthy individuals.
In doing this the teacher has to make efforts to ensure that students —
(i) eat a proper diet and perform regular exercise and physical activity which are requirements of good physical health.
(ii) inculcate friendship between classmates, indulge in amicable behavior with others in school so that students develop a helpful nature. These are necessary for mental and emotional health.
3. Teachers should train students in learning life skills like —
a) empathy and self awareness
b) effective communication so that they develop healthy Interpersonal relationships
c) problem-solving and decision-making to learn to be stress free
d) creative and critical thinking
e) coping with stress and emotion.
The above are absolutely essential for developing social skills in order to be socially healthy.
Social skills help a student to have a desirable self image and self esteem and also self confidence. This makes children acquire ability to live harmoniously in the society.
Role of technology in building social health
Technology has made communication convenient through Mobiles, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and E-mail messages. Knowledge about different media can help to develop the skills to access the appropriate media for accurate information on a specific topic or issues. More so, because media brings awareness, and provides access to global knowledge and learning. But refrain from using mobiles and viewing the T.V. for long periods as that tends to be counter-productive and reduce interaction time with others. This makes us socially withdrawn. Although media is a source of information, all of it may not be true or reliable. It is advisable to seek guidenes from a trusted adult while accessing media and internet. Moreover, there is a need to understand about real and fake news or information as these affects our attitude and behavior.
Role of students in building habits of social health
Social health comes from social skills. A few important guidelines for promoting social skills are outlined below.
(i) Building self awareness is an important skill: Practice self-care by developing habits of cleanliness and hygiene, keeping away from substance abuse, engaging in physical activity and regularly consuming a balanced diet.
(ii) Do not be blameful and judgmental: Remember when you point a finger at others, three fingers of yours point towards you. Hence indulge in knowing yourself better. It helps to discriminate between a good and a bad act of yours and helps to make friends. Empathy and self awareness go hand in hand. When you seea child hitting an animal, tell that child that if they were hit, they would feel the same pain. That is empathy for others and leads to self awareness.
(iii) Learn to identify your own mistakes: There is no harm in saying sorry for a mistake and rectifying it. People will have faith in you if you did so.
(iv) Make an effort to reconnect with old relationships and friendships: The socially healthy person makes an effort to contact and meet old friends, to remember enjoyable periods of childhood which can be a good way to beat stress and spend leisure time.
(v) Appreciate yourself and others: But never let your ego rule your behaviour which can sometimes drive you to lose a relationship.
(vi) Try and be respectful, positive and supportive towards the needy, the physically and mentally challenged, the downtrodden and those belonging to faith and cultures other than yours. Lend an ear to others opinion. It teaches tolerance. Tolerance and appreciation are virtues in socially healthy individuals.
Role of family in inculcating social skills in young family members
The importance of family in inculcating social skills among, children is paramount. Guardians or parents are the prime teachers and caretakers who feed them healthy food and are also their play mates. They have to be aware themselves to be role model and make children appreciate as they grow. The benefits of enjoying nutritious food and being aware of a balanced diet is of paramount importance. Watching of television for longer duration is bad for students. Parents themselves have to be cautious in what they do in front of children and how long they are in front of the TV. However, at the same time good TV programmes are an avenue for learning. Encourage them to indulge in physical activity to build their muscles and bones. Fit body and fitness depends primarily on proper diet and healthy body and mind. The parents and elder family members need to guide them in social skills. Parents and elders have to be accessible to children for necessary guidance. They form a “safety network’. They are to guide adolescents through advice, answer their queries and occupy them through activities to keep them away from involvement in addictive substances like tobacco, drugs and alcohol which they might believe are helpful in tiding over stress. However, these substances have deleterious effects on the growing body.
