Schools and Public Health Past, Present, Future / by Michael Gard and Carolyn Pluim.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gard, Michael, 1965-

Contributor:

Pluim, Carolyn.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public schools--Health promotion services--United States.

Public schools.

Public schools--Health promotion services.

United States.

Physical Description:

263 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Lanham, MD. : Lexington Books, 2014.

Summary:

Schools and Public Health: Past, Present, Future is a meditation on the relationship between public health and American public schools. Michael Gard and Carolyn Pluim begin by developing a historical account of the way schools have been used in the public health policy arena in America. They then look in detail at more contemporary examples of school-based public health policies and initiatives in order to come to a judgment about whether and to what extent it makes sense to use schools in this way. With this is as the foundation, the book offers answers to the question of why schools have so readily been drawn into public health policy formulations. First, seeing schools as a kind of "miracle factory" is a long standing habit-of-mind that discourages careful consideration of alternative public health strategies. Second, schools have been implicated in public health policy in strategic ways by actors-often with unstated political, cultural, ideological, and financial motivations. Finally, the authors call for a more sophisticated approach to public health policy in schools and suggest some criteria for judging the potential efficacy of school-based interventions. In short, the potential effectiveness of proposed interventions needs to be assessed not only against existing historical evidence, but also against the competing roles society expects schools to play and the working-life realities for those charged with implementing public health policies in schools. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Fear and Loathing in Seattle 1

2 A Process, Not a Thing 13

3 The Birth of the Miracle Factory 37

4 A Dazzling Variety 61

5 Sex, Drugs, and School Food 87

6 Reforming the Self 113

7 Obesity, Schools, and History 137

8 The "New" Body Work of Being a Teacher 157

9 Health for Sale 181

10 A Future without Limits 209.

ISBN:

9780739172582

0739172581

OCLC:

868038680