“You say you want a revolution…” – John Lennon/Paul McCartney
The term revolution is overused and cliched. Yet, I can’t help see what we’re creating at WholeHealthED in partnership with the Whole Health Institute as truly groundbreaking. At this critical juncture when we’re in dire need of radically different health and educational paradigms to address the challenges today’s kids face, Whole Health Learning offers a practical, accessible solution.
The complex interplay between health and educational challenges demands creative new collaborations between both spheres. The siloed solutions of yesterday no longer adequately serve, and the choreographed coordination of health promotion components is needed. Access to an integrated, comprehensive, and customizable SEL-based wellness studies program, designed to mitigate ACEs and improve long term health via self-care competency, would greatly benefit students, educators, families, and communities. Furthermore, it would complement and amplify existing successful school and community initiatives, creating an accessible, proactive, and holistic wellness creation model for children and families. We call this approach “Whole Health Learning” (WHL).
– excerpt from Whole Health Learning
Our goal is to establish a national public wellness infrastructure to sustainably support the development of WHL programs in public schools throughout the nation. I’d argue this investment is the single greatest bang-for-your-buck for truly improving health outcomes in our country. While we recognize schools are simply struggling to stay open during the pandemic, we didn’t want to wait to provide critical resources right now, and thus, WholeHealth4You was born.
WholeHealth4You features kids teaching kids about the main whole health principles – how to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit. Centered on themes of health (the usuals like food, rest and activity as well as less obvious but equally important foundations like purpose and relationships), each short video features kids teaching kids and is associated with an accompanying resource guide. The guides can be used by parents and teachers to create activities and lesson plans around the whole health themes – right now.
In stories to come, I’ll be profiling each of our themes with highlights from videos and resource guides. Subscribe to the WholeHealth4You channel for notifications of newly published videos and to this site for all new stories.
