The first tenet of a whole child approach to education is healthy. Each student, in each school and in each community, should enter school healthy and learn about and practice a healthy lifestyle. We know that if students aren't healthy, they can't learn; therefore, health is the most basic of the tenets of education.
For the past decade, ASCD has been working on strengthening the links between health and education. These two essential sectors must align and work collaboratively if we are to truly support students and their growth and learning. If we are serving the same students in the same location and for the same needs, it makes sense to work together.
In 1987, noted school health experts Diane Allensworth and Lloyd Kolbe introduced the Coordinated School Health Model, in which school health is illustrated as a necessary foundation for not only healthy students, but also healthy and effective schools. And although this has been a well-established, easily understood model for the past two decades, it hasn't had the effect inside education circles as its potential held.
In 2011, ASCD published The Healthy School Communities Model: Aligning Health and Education in the School Setting (PDF) and asked for a paradigm shift in how education and health view each other. ASCD is