Fairport officials urge more peer to peer education in health classes
FAIRPORT — Officials at the ninth-grade school want their students more involved in their own health education and hope to turn them into better peer educators when it comes to making healthy lifestyle choices.
Minerva DeLand School officials plan to create a program where students conduct a research project about a given risky behavior, such as unprotected sex or using drugs or alcohol, and present their findings in their health classes.
Students would use the 2009 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, an informal study taken by Monroe County students in seventh to 12th grades conducted by the county health department.
“Too often we get this report, we tell the students and then it goes nowhere from there,” said Rebecca Comstra, a physical education teacher. “We think students will benefit from hearing a report from their peers and the subject should address what students are going through.”
The physical education curriculum is divided into 10 three-week units; two of the units are designed for health instruction. Last year, the Health Steering Committee conducted an analysis of the current system and found gaps at the ninth grade in almost every area when it came to health, including physical activity, nutrition and violence prevention.
“Sometimes when an adult is in front of students telling them how they should behave, students just view it as another talking head, but they are not going to tune out another student who understands their situation better,” said Patrick Moriarty, Minerva DeLand principal. “A kid is going to be sitting in that class listening to other students — and that is a powerful message.”
Two decades ago, health was taught only in the seventh and 12th grades in Fairport. Administrators found students would benefit from adding instruction in the ninth grade as a bridge between middle school and the last year of high school.
