Promoting Partnerships for Healthy Youth - Essay Example

A Journal Article in the Family and Consumer Science: “Promoting Partnerships for Healthy Youth” The essay aims to provide a brief overview of a chosen journal article from the family and consumer science field in terms of determining its purpose, focus, and audience. Likewise, the discourse would identify several key elements, concepts or ideas and provide a discussion as to why they are important. The essay would likewise provide a critique of any strengths or weaknesses in the article and statement for the reasons for this opinion.

As indicated, one or two key points or ideas would be selected from the article and a description of how one would use the points and ideas in teaching would be explained through a provision of real or hypothetical examples. Finally, a strong balance of personal reaction, as well as summarized information, would be included.“Promoting Partnerships for Healthy Youth”Brief Overview The article entitled “Promoting Partnerships for Healthy Youth” was written by Gulley (2011) and published in the Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education.

The author clearly stated that the purpose of the project was “to deliver a school-based health promotion program… (where) the aim of the program was to increase nutrition knowledge, promote a healthy body mass index and encourage a healthy body image among children in grades four through seven, residing in a small rural community in southwest Virginia” (Gulley, 2011, p. 47). Through providing a theoretical background that establishes the need for school-based health promotion, as evidenced by the reported incidences of obesity and prevalence of overweight children, Gulley examined school-based interventions to determine their effectiveness prior to proposed implementation.

Key Elements, Concepts or Ideas The key elements present in the discourse used the joint efforts of university and community partnership as the main agencies to promote health and enhance awareness of school children on the relevance of an identified program, the Healthy Weights for Healthy Kids (HWHK). As revealed, the HWHK “a school-based health education program, developed by Cooperative Extension Specialists at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, which focuses on promoting positive attitudes and behaviors related to food, drinks, physical activity, and body image (Serrano, 2003)” (Gulley, 2011, p. 48). There were six identified key topics from which the HWHK’s curriculum was premised and guided by the Experiential Learning Model, to wit: “(1) Smart Foods, (2) Smart Choices, (3) Smart Drinks, (4) Smart Snacks, (5) Smart Activities and (6) Smart Image” (Gulley, 2011, p. 48). By measuring students’ knowledge of attitudes towards a healthy disposition through an examination given after the HWHK program, the nutrition knowledge scores would reveal any improvement in health awareness, as aimed.

Key Points to be Used in Teaching The points discussed and key topics provided by the HWHK program enhanced educators’ knowledge of the need to enhance students’ awareness of health promotion. The evaluation of any progress on students’ awareness was generated through the provision of tests that measure nutrition knowledge prior to the program and after its implementation. The findings revealed that the program enhanced nutrition knowledge and thereby contributed to students’ awareness of healthy food items that are needed to be consumed on a regular basis.

Further, through physical measurements of body mass index, the after implementation of the program results revealed an improvement in the number of students with healthy weight status. There was the increased percentage of students who were unhappy or unsure of how their body looked, indicating that enhanced awareness of proper nutrition and body mass index made them more aware of the need to change the way they eat and the need to be more physically fit to conform to the standards of a healthier body.

Personal Reaction The article is highly useful and beneficial for educators through guidelines provided on possibly incorporating lessons noted in the HWHK program within the students’ curriculum. The need for the children to be more aware of factors that lead to overweight and obesity is crucial for health promotion. As more children become increasingly prone to obesity, school administrators and community leaders must indeed join hands in ensuring that health promotional programs are integrated within the curriculum in a regular and intensified way.