mongoose123 said:i remember those rules, "No hat, no play" lol.
That's probably one of the single most useful things that public schools have done from a preventative health perspective. Skin cancer kills more young people than any other easily preventable cancer, and the number one risk factor is sun exposure. Heart disease and stroke usually kill you later on.
In my experience, schools generally don't like getting involved in health initiatives because they don't see it as their core business (although that view seems to be changing however slowly). Neither is attending to children who've been hurt running around, since any adverse outcome is an opportunity for a lawsuit against the Dept. of Education these days.
IMHO, a big part of the problem is that many people do not take responsibility for their own health (for instance, you must be living under a very big rock if you don't know that not exercising, and excessive sun exposure are bad for you.)
When something does go wrong, people expect that in a wealthy first world country such as Australia, you can fix absolutely anything. The reality of modern healthcare is that most disease is not well understood, and the failure to engage in preventative health because of complacency only ever causes harm to the individual.
Alrighty - rant mode off.
n