What if you had to learn about a healthy lifestyle in school? Would that
change the nation’s health or end up being too expensive? Read to find out!

Teaching a healthy lifestyle in schools: good or bad?

Americans are obese. This is not a mere stereotype other nations might hold but a sad fact. Inactivity now is the new norm.

Half a century ago, you could earn a decent living doing a physically active job. Now, we are often confined to the cubicle.

Instead of having nice small neighborhoods where you can get around on a bicycle, you have to drive to get to the nearest Wallmart. And the diet with lots of fat and sugar doesn’t help either.

Can we live in this new world or should we have a decent education on a healthy lifestyle? Are influencers enough, or should the US Department of Education step in?

Read on to learn all the pros and cons of healthy lifestyleeducation.

The benefits of a healthy lifestyle education

Before talking about making healthy living a compulsory school subject, let’s take a look at the term’s meaning. If we were to force it into the curriculum tomorrow, it would most likely include dietary knowledge and physical exercise.

It may also include broader scientific knowledge about things that make you happier and healthier. And, it will most likely be more of a practical course to attract enough people.

Healthier and more productive generation

The obvious result of healthy living classes is people who routinely practice better health-seeking behaviors. If we take the effort to teach our youth about the long term effects of different behavior patterns, they will act more rationally.

Our world is full of unhealthy things that we crave. Cigarettes and alcohol remain very popular despite tons of information about their harm and tragic examples of their abuse or misuse. But, where loud phrases do not work, science may.

If children can compose an ideal personal diet and then cook a meal for themselves, they can stick to tasty andhealthy food instead of sugary snacks.

If we incorporate a healthy lifestyle in physical education, this inevitably will result in people being more fit in general. And, able-bodied and healthy people are usually more productive in life. Hence, academic and career success is soon to follow.

People will get hands-on skills

Many children in schools feel like studying is useless. They do not see the point in learning maths as they probably won’t use Pythagorean theorem ever again.

Likewise, many people do not see the point in writing academic papers themselves, so they get them at websites like www.the-essays.com/term-paper.

Well, healthy living is one of those classes you won’t regret attending. It will give you a skill you will actually need in life because it can help you live better and longer.

People will be happier

It’s not to say that obese people can’t be happy, but you can imagine how hard the proverbial pursuit of happiness is when walking becomes a challenge.

Fit and healthy people are happieron average. Good food brings good health, and a decent amount of exercise produces endorphins your brain needs to feel happy.

Possible economic benefits

Did we mention that healthy people are more productive? They have better immune systems, more glucose to fuel their brains, and are more proactive overall.

It is hard to state it with a 100% accuracy, but a nation that implements healthy living education may see the growth of their GDP because of a reciprocal increase in productive workers. People may also stay in the workforce for a longer time because of better health.

The downsides

What can possibly be wrong about such a great cause? While having the whole country learn how to live healthy might seem like a great plan, there are some pitfalls to consider.

It will cost a fortune

The education system is a broad and complicated network. To get a new subject on the curriculum, you’d have to change a lot of things in a mechanism that has been working just fine for decades.

You’ll have to find time to teach the subject, form an adequate program, hire and train new teachers, and buy supplies. The whole process can simply cost too much for the education system to bare.

It will take a long time to implement

Even if the supporters of this cause get the budget to implement the discipline, it can be too late, and the process will drag on for years.

To make a good program, you’d have to make long term experiments to see what works and what doesn’t. You’d have to work for a couple of years to only write the program, and for another couple of years to make every school in the country adopt it.

But will it still be relevant then?

Many students do not trust schools

Sure, educators work hard to earn students’ trust. But have you seen a teenager who’s eager to learn whatever they’re taught in school? On the contrary, many are skeptical of the curriculum.

This point may be deadly for the whole idea. Why would you take so much money and effort if teens are more likely to eat kale because a blogger they follow on Instagram said so, not their school teacher?