Healthy schools

Abstract

Davis Guggenheim's Waiting For Superman has caused a storm in the USA. The film indicts the American public school system as a failure and promotes charter schools as an alternative. This slick documentary with excellent animation and music is Guggenheim's personal portrayal of five children's struggles with the education system.Among the children Guggenheim follows are Anthony, whose father died of a drug overdose and who has been raised by his grandmother; he is one of 64 applicants for 24 places in a charter school. Then there is Daisy who has dreams about becoming a doctor and has to compete with 135 other children for ten places at Kipp LA Prep. There is no doubt that Guggenheim, who made the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, is a talented director but his call to arms presents an unbalanced account of teaching unions and he is selective in his focus on only a handful of successful charter schools.Although the film has generated much debate, how these and other recent educational reforms might influence the social determinants of adolescent health has received virtually no attention. Similar reforms have emerged in countries ranging from the UK to Finland and New Zealand. These policies may bring benefits, especially for the brightest, but they might have perverse effects on young people's health.Parental choice and the promotion of charter schools might leave other schools in deprived areas worse off. Such schools can present challenging environments. Students may become involved in smoking, drink and drugs, sexual activity, or gang-related violence to fit in and stay safe with the peer group, but also to define their identity when one based on educational achievement might seem unachievable. The reasons why adolescents pursue such behaviours are, of course, complex, but when children become low-attainers in school some will build their identities on risk behaviours that compromise their health.These scenarios may seem far-fetched but they come from my research with colleagues in English secondary schools. They suggest pathways by which educational reforms might increase rates of smoking, drinking and drug misuse, teenage pregnancy, or violence, and contribute to longer-term health problems. So perhaps new educational reforms should be subject to health impact assessment to ensure that the health and life chances of many young people are not overlooked. Davis Guggenheim's Waiting For Superman has caused a storm in the USA. The film indicts the American public school system as a failure and promotes charter schools as an alternative. This slick documentary with excellent animation and music is Guggenheim's personal portrayal of five children's struggles with the education system. Among the children Guggenheim follows are Anthony, whose father died of a drug overdose and who has been raised by his grandmother; he is one of 64 applicants for 24 places in a charter school. Then there is Daisy who has dreams about becoming a doctor and has to compete with 135 other children for ten places at Kipp LA Prep. There is no doubt that Guggenheim, who made the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth, is a talented director but his call to arms presents an unbalanced account of teaching unions and he is selective in his focus on only a handful of successful charter schools. Although the film has generated much debate, how these and other recent educational reforms might influence the social determinants of adolescent health has received virtually no attention. Similar reforms have emerged in countries ranging from the UK to Finland and New Zealand. These policies may bring benefits, especially for the brightest, but they might have perverse effects on young people's health. Parental choice and the promotion of charter schools might leave other schools in deprived areas worse off. Such schools can present challenging environments. Students may become involved in smoking, drink and drugs, sexual activity, or gang-related violence to fit in and stay safe with the peer group, but also to define their identity when one based on educational achievement might seem unachievable. The reasons why adolescents pursue such behaviours are, of course, complex, but when children become low-attainers in school some will build their identities on risk behaviours that compromise their health. These scenarios may seem far-fetched but they come from my research with colleagues in English secondary schools. They suggest pathways by which educational reforms might increase rates of smoking, drinking and drug misuse, teenage pregnancy, or violence, and contribute to longer-term health problems. So perhaps new educational reforms should be subject to health impact assessment to ensure that the health and life chances of many young people are not overlooked.