At Haddonfield Memorial High School, we value the high level of our academics and our curricula; that’s what makes our school one of the best in the state. But, our school is not without its flaws. Some of our courses are better developed than others, and one course that is, in my opinion, severely underdeveloped is the Freshman Health class. 

The point of Freshman Health is to inform students on how to live a healthy lifestyle, and how to recognize unhealthy decisions, but I believe that it genuinely misses the mark. This class is non-inclusive, outdated, and far from what it’s set out to be. One example of its outdatedness is an article that students had to read in class, in which the purpose was to inform students about unhealthy eating habits, but the article shamed obese children and made a cruel joke out of it. I found this article to be extremely offensive, and diminish the importance of learning about unhealthy behaviors. Another example of Freshman Health’s ineffectiveness is having students watch movies about certain issues to convey the message, which causes students to not take the issue seriously because it is brought to their attention in a casual manner. Although it isn’t offensive, I believe that this method of communicating the issue to students affects their understanding of the matter. This class also demonstrates non-inclusivity by failing to go into depth about serious issues within HMHS, like discrimination and harassment. 

To gauge the opinions of other students who have taken the course, I sent out an anonymous poll to a large group of students, in which the options were: in favor of changes being made to the Freshman Health curriculum, not in favor, and impartial. The results are that 83% of the students that took the poll believe that the Freshman Health course needs changes to its curriculum, 0% of students think that Freshman Health does not deserve changes, and 16% are impartial. Based on this information, it is clear that something has to be done to make the class serve its purpose. I believe that switching up course materials and putting emphasis on issues that affect our school community is the way to go. The NJDOE’s Health Education Model Curriculum states that a skill that should be accomplished during health class is “Developing and implementing an effective personal wellness plan contributes to healthy decision-making over one’s lifetime” (Page 3). I think that this point especially could benefit a lot of students at HMHS if done correctly, taking into account the amount of stress that students face, and adjusting things like this in the curriculum can help students to become more well-rounded individuals.