Wellness in School is a growing unit in many K-8 elementary schools in the United States. Wellness is defined as [1] the quality or state of being in good health, especially as an actively sought goal. Wellness is commonly associated with holistic or alternatives forms of health, but it has started to branch out to workplace wellness in which businesses are offering support, education and even incentives for health in the workplace; however, wellness has also expanded into some of our elementary schools curriculum. Wellness is taught in 6 to 7 dimensions: physical, social, intellectual, emotional, spiritual, occupational and environmental. Numerous sites disagree and do not include environmental in their definition [2]. This maybe surprising to some in public schools because of the hesitation to teach religion, most teachers would look to omit spirituality. However, spirituality is simply defined the ability to establish peace and harmony in our lives through beliefs [3]. While the teaching of "The Whole Child" seems to be an antiquated philosophy with public schools trending towards high-stakes testing, there are many schools such as Montessori and other philosophies/pedagogies that value this curriculum. The following isn't an expanded definition of each, but simply what the goals and objectives are for each dimension.
Spiritual- As stated above, spirituality isn't covered in religion, but rather whatever beliefs bring harmony to your life.
Physical- The physical dimension is the robust and focuses on three sub-categories: healthy eating [4], exercise and the human body systems (digestive system, skeletal system and circulatory system)
Intellectual- The brain is a complex organ, so for K-5 the focus can be on the brain controlling the body, all the way up to studying the following lobes and cerebellum: frontal, occipital, temporal, and parietal. It's important for the students to understand that different lobes control different bodily functions. [5]
Emotional- Emotional focuses on teaching students how to identify negative and positive emotions and then provides coping strategies.
Occupational- The occupational dimension varies per curriculum, but most incapsulate the education needed for the career and why it makes them happy.
Social- Social is closely tied to emotional and centers around the importance of communication and ways to communicate.
- Environmental- Environmental is defined as Living a life accountable to environmental needs, both in the present and in the long-term [6]
- ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wellness
- ^ http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2010/01/defining-wellness-hettlers-six.html
- ^ http://wellness.ucr.edu/seven_dimensions.html
- ^ http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/downloads/MyPyramid_Getting_Started.pdf
- ^ http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/lobe.html
- ^ http://wellness.ucr.edu/environmental_wellness.html