If “it takes a village to raise a child” then what does it mean to be a village? What is the role of connection technologies in our educational community and family settings? How do we help change the context of our children’s lives?
One size does not fit all. Take a school health model into everyday practice and help a school community plan, co-ordinate and deliver activities and strategies without adding to the workload. As with any population people are diverse with varied needs and abilities. It is unreasonable to assume that one approach can provide adequate service to an entire demographic. Many aspects have to be taken into account – geographic restrictions, interpersonal relationships and conflicts and types of services offered. The framework can help a school community build trusting relationships. Engagement of schools, workplaces and communities in creating a mentally healthy society benefits all of us.
Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
The “fix it” approach to health education is like the seduction of a “magic pill” to make things better. Everyone chooses one of two roads in life. One is the broad well-travelled road to mediocrity, the other the road to greatness and meaning. The range of possibilities within these two destinations is as wide as the diversity of gifts and personalities in the human family. But the contrast is as the night is to the day (Steven Covey: “The 8th Habit.”)
The path to mediocrity straitjackets human potential and is the quick fix short-cut approach to life. The path to greatness unleashes and releases human potential. Travellers on the lower path to mediocrity live out the cultural software of ego, indulgence, scarcity, comparison, competitiveness and victimism, according to Covey. Travellers on the upper path to greatness rise above negative cultural influences and choose to become the creative force of their lives. One word expresses the pathway to greatness: Voice. Those on this path find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. The rest never do.
Wellness isn’t a destination. It’s a pursuit.
How do we get on the wellness road and stay there? On this journey without end wellness is a process of being not a state of being. Striving for wellness helps us find a better life. We will not find perfection but we can always get better.
