About WholeHealthED WholeHealthED is an independent, nonprofit program and policy organization advocating for infusing a comprehensive whole health learning experience into American elementary and secondary education. We advocate for an urgently needed remaking of health education that responds to the challenges faced by the Nation and its youngest generation, and specifically prepares children and young adults with the skills, knowledge and awareness they will need to: Manage the many aspects of life that influence health and well-being, for them, their families, their communities, and the Nation, and to Participate in the businesses, practices, and professions now evolving around sustainability, natural systems and the emerging wellness-sector of the economy that include technology, healthcare, law, land and water management, academic research and specific skills and talent development The Vision Students leave secondary school with a competency in the factors that strengthen their own wellbeing and vitality and with the knowledge and tools of self-care to use as they grow and mature. The Mission Our mission is to advance partnerships, models and collaborations among educators, practitioners, advocates and supporters who have been deeply involved for many years in the domains that characterize whole health learning: In garden, nature, nutrition, cognition-based fitness and mindfulness, in concert with Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) communities of practice. The outcomes each has achieved independently have effectively established the foundations for a national movement in school-centered wellbeing education that provides our children much deeper involvement in, awareness of and value for wellbeing and the means to achieve it. How Whole Health Learning Fits in K-12 Education The Urgency The necessity of a changing the way children learn about health and wellbeing and the role of schooling in that process was plain well before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the spring of 2020. In 1997, the Institute of Medicine issued a report entitled: “Schools & Health: Our Nation’s Investment.” It noted: “The schools of yesteryear were not expected to solve the health and social problems of the day by themselves; the medical, public health, social work, legislative, and philanthropic sectors all pitched in. Given the scope and complexity of the health problems of today’s (1997) children and young people, it is again likely that schools will not be able to provide solutions without the cooperation and support of families, community institutions, the healthcare enterprise, and the political system.” Nearly a quarter of a century later, a period during which the nation has experienced a nearly unchecked rise in childhood obesity and concurrent declines in mental, emotional and behavioral health, what was needed then is plainly more urgently needed now. Educators, and particularly the courageous teachers doing this work today, classroom by classroom, deserve our support. Tapping our national public wellness infrastructure and the schools at its center to foster health education partnerships that nurture whole-health-promoting habits children will take with them into their adult years must be a priority. See more on the foundations of Whole Health Learning here.