Model health education curriculum teaches behavior-focused skills for healthy lifestyles (e.g. health literacy).

Health literacy is an integral component of 21st century education. Healthy students are learners who are “knowledgeable, productive, and also emotionally and physically healthy, motivated, civically engaged, prepared for work and economic self-sufficiency, and ready for the world beyond their own borders” (ASCD, 2004). As part of the state’s initiative to prepare students to function optimally as global citizens and workers, the contemporary view of health and physical education focuses on taking personal responsibility for one’s health through an active, healthy lifestyle that fosters a lifelong commitment to wellness. The mission and vision for comprehensive health and physical education reflects this perspective:

Mission: Knowledge of health and physical education concepts and skills empowers students to assume lifelong responsibility to develop physical, social, and emotional wellness.

All students participate in a comprehensive, sequential, health and physical education program that emphasizes the natural interdisciplinary connection between wellness and health and physical education. The Standard provide a blueprint for curriculum development, instruction, and assessment that reflects the latest research-based platform for effective health and physical education programs. The primary focus of the Standard is on the development of knowledge and skills that influence healthy behaviors within the context of self, family, school, and the local and global community.