School health education needs to build a broad base of awareness, tolerance, and sensitivity to different expressions of healthy behavior while maintaining scientific accuracy. Children must be encouraged to explore and value what their subcultures teach about healthy behavior. This exploration needs to take place in an environment of acceptance where no one culture is regarded more highly than another. Educators need to help all children to clarify their cultural heritages and acknowledge that their cultures are pieces in the mosaic of American life. Health behaviors may seem meaningless or superficial until explained within the context of culture.
Cultural knowledge involves searching for hidden meaning or rationale for a behavior.
Children need the opportunity to explore how different cultures explain suffering, treatment of illness, and promotion of health. Some Native American children may be taught to regard a healthy lifestyle as part of their relationship to the natural world. Teaching children to respect and value multiple pathways to healthy living is essential in order to establish shared values and beliefs about health. Every culture has stories of how people get sick, get better, and stay healthy. One exercise is for learners to identify and share stories from their cultural heritages.