Youth health education knowledge promotion

The core implementation logic of the current youth health education propaganda is never to instill knowledge points according to the textbook, nor to turn health requirements into new "discipline clauses." It is to adapt to the real life scenarios of teenagers, not to avoid confusion, not to exaggerate the harm, not to engage in moral kidnapping, and to incorporate the content of physiological, psychological, and behavioral guidance into daily conversations. This is the kind of propaganda that can really penetrate into the hearts of children.

It’s quite interesting to say that when I first entered the industry, I thought publicity had to be based on a system and what should be said. It wasn’t until I went to a key junior high school in the district to give a publicity last year that I completely changed my mind. At that time, I prepared a full 40-page PPT. The content was based on the official guidelines and covered the three major modules of myopia prevention and control, dietary balance, and infectious disease prevention. Before the start, I specially greeted the class teacher and asked the students to sit down and listen carefully. As soon as I finished introducing myself, the audience raised their hands and asked questions that were not in my script: "Can I squeeze acne caused by staying up late? Is it true that it is said online that squeezing can lead to intracranial infection? ”“I have been isolated by my dormitory classmates for half a month. Does not wanting to go to school every day count as depression? ”“Is the 'seven days of fasting to lose 10 pounds' in Xiaohongshu really not harmful to the body? ”

There are actually two different ideas in the industry about youth health promotion. One is the "system school", which believes that it is necessary to stratify by grade, and make physical health, psychological development, disease prevention, sex education and other contents into standardized courseware, and even include them in exam scoring, in order to force schools, parents and students to pay attention.； The other school is the "scenario school", which is the direction I agree with now. I feel that the most confusing problems for teenagers are often fragmented. They are pseudo-science popularization obtained through short videos, wrong rumors spread among peers, and secret confusions that they dare not tell their parents and teachers. Only by answering these questions clearly before supplementing system knowledge can it be useful. The two factions have been arguing for several years, and neither can convince the other. In fact, there is no conflict at all in practice - basic health knowledge, such as the seven-step handwashing method and eight hours of sleep a day, of course need to be taught systematically, but how and who speaks are always more important than what is said.

Don’t think that the “weird questions” kids ask are an exception. After the lecture last year, a boy who was in the second grade of junior high school lingered until the end. He held it in for a long time and asked me if frequent nocturnal emissions were a "physical breakdown." He said that he had checked on Baidu and said that it would cause kidney failure and affect future fertility. He was so scared that he didn't dare to tell his parents for half a year and was distracted in class. There was also a girl who was a freshman in high school. She went on a diet for three months in order to fit into her best friend's small-size dress. When her aunt stopped, she thought she was "detoxifying". It wasn't until the lecture was over that I reminded her to go to the hospital for a checkup. She found out that it was secondary amenorrhea caused by long-term insufficient caloric intake. It took half a year to recover. If you follow the standardized courseware, you may not be able to talk about these issues until the third year of high school, but they actually affect children's current learning and life.

Of course, there are always many voices of opposition. Last year, we launched sex education classes in three pilot schools, covering body boundaries, sexual consent, and correct contraceptive knowledge. Some parents came to the schools to protest, saying, "Children don't understand anything, but you only aroused their curiosity by teaching them." We fully understand this concern and are not in a hurry to refute it. We just sent the statistics of the pilot class for one semester to parents: the number of physical harassment complaints among students in these three schools dropped by 62% compared with the previous semester. In the past, many girls were pulled by boys and had their hair pulled and their backs touched. They did not know how to resist. Now they will directly say, "You are crossing the line. I can tell the teacher."” ； There were also three girls who were afraid to tell their parents because of their unwanted pregnancies. After listening to the class, they took the initiative to seek help from the school doctor, thus avoiding more serious harm. Once the data is presented, the voices of opposition will naturally become smaller.

To be honest, after working in this business for a long time, I feel more and more that we who do publicity should not regard ourselves as "preachers" from above, but just be "information filters" for children. Nowadays, the information on the Internet is mixed, and they are unable to distinguish which ones are true and which are eye-catching rumors. We should generously give them correct, non-scary, and unobtrusive knowledge. We do not need to ask them to memorize all the knowledge points. As long as they know when they encounter a problem, "Oh, I have heard this before, I can ask the school doctor or teacher without blindly searching Baidu." That is enough.

Last week I went to that key junior high school for a return visit. As soon as I entered the school, I met the boy who asked me about nocturnal emissions. He came to me and told me that he no longer thought nonsense. He also showed the health manual we distributed to his classmates at the time, correcting their misconception that "masturbation will make you stupid." You see, the effect of health promotion is never immediate. It is like a small note passed around in school days, passed one by one, and slowly spread. The correct knowledge will always help them when they need it.