My Personal Philosophy of Health Education

 

My personal philosophy of health education incorporates all of what and who I am, what I value, what I believe and stand for in relation to health and education. In other words, for me to set up my philosophy of education I found it was crucial for me to identify the array of factors that have contributed to what I believe in, which has directed me in forming my philosophy or my mission. As Shirreff’s (1976) said “all philosophizing begins with the person becoming aware of his/her existence which precedes the establishment of essence in that individual.” With this idea being the case, it came to my understanding that self-examination of our being will help us discover our essence.

 

In other words, our existence mirrors our values and beliefs, which in turn manipulate the direction of our professional being or mission. What then are my values and beliefs, and how have they influenced the development of my philosophy of health education? What I value the most is “life,” without life how can I value anything else including my friends and family and my career. If I don’t value life, how am I expected to educate or teach someone how to care for their life. I believe that health is having complete control over one’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental wellbeing. As we all know, if one of these elements is out of balance then our wellbeing will be disturbed. My philosophy is that health education is not a quick fix to our health issue when they arise but rather health education is like laying the foundation for a house, without a strong foundation, the house will not stand for long.

 

Similarly, without a strong foundation in health education, individuals may not be able to effectively manage their health issues. As Robert Collier states “Success if the sum of small effort repeated day in and day out.” I believe if we keep on educating our community and the world little by little and day by day, we will reach our target goal. As a health educator, my main goal will be to increase the knowledge and understanding of the community, to help change unhealthy habits into healthy habits, and to get us all in a state of optimal health.