Health Education: A blast from the past

I sat in on a presentation today about addictions.

The third year students and some boy who I’m guessing is either a helper at the school or is from the high school taught the kids about the dangers of smoking, drinking, drugs (to name a few).

It really took me back to my school days. The children’s responses were so similar to ours. “Smoking is bad for you, I’ll never smoke”, “Drugs can kill you, I’d never try drugs”. I had to laugh thinking about how many people said this in  my school yet a few years later they have completely forgotten about these ‘pledges’. In my head I was saying “yeah yeah kids, you just wait until you get to high school”.

The presentation was different to what we were put through. The completely ignored sex. Maybe because the theme was addictions, is sex an addiction? It is on Blades of Glory. They were also taught about the computer and mobile phone addicts! Now we were never taught about that in school. In fact this was the first time that I’ve ever officially heard someone refer to using technology for more than a few hours a day an addiction. I felt a little guilty. Whilst I can say that I’m too good to smoke, take drugs, gamble, excessively drink, I am definitely what they would class as a computer addict! To be honest the Italians have learnt that all UK children are overly dependent on technology so I’m sure they wouldn’t be surprised to hear how many hours a day I waste on here.

I can’t help but feel nostalgic after the presentation. It was only 20 minutes long (lucky buggers, we were subjected to a whole day of health education every year!) but I really knew what it felt like to be the kids in the audience. I saw myself there, I knew who I was sitting next to, I knew what I was whispering to my friend… I can’t believe how fast time is going. I’m the teacher now! Sometimes I forget that.