Forty Years of Heritage-From School Health Review to the Present

The first volume of School Health Review appeared in September 1969 as a project of what was then the School Health Division of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (AAHPER). It was a quarterly publication then whose purpose was "to provide new information and ideas for those responsible for health instruction and health services in the schools of the nation." (1) The passage of time has contributed to the evolution of both the publication and the organization that it represents. Whereas school health professionals still comprise a priority group for the publication, its focus is much broader now and its constituent groups have become more numerous. Just as the related organizational acronyms have changed over the years (the development and later reconfiguration of AAHE, the transition of AAHPER to AAHPERD), so too has the nomenclature of the Journal--first to Health Education, and then to Journal of Health Education, before settling into its current title. Members of the AAHE History and Philosophy Committee, notably Gus Dalis and M Sofalvi, approached me a couple of years ago about dedicating space in the Journal to the history of the profession. Being an amateur historiographer myself, I embraced their idea enthusiastically. Although it took some time for the idea to come to fruition, the result is Health Education--Our Heritage, making its debut in this first issue to recognize the 40th anniversary of what has evolved into AAHE's primary vehicle of scholarly communication, the American Journal of Health Education. Over the next year, there will be regular "flashback" articles appearing in the Journal from that initial volume of School Health Review, accompanied by contemporary reflections provided by some of AAHE's distinguished members and scholars. In the current issue, we reprint Dr. Warren R. Johnson's paper entitled "Magic, Morals, and Health," an examination of America's views of sex education and sexuality in general, that first appeared in November 1969. (2) The reprinted paper is followed by an examination of its relevance 40 years later, contributed by Dr. Michael Young and Dr. Robert Valois, both of whom are recent recipients of the coveted AAHE Scholar Award. For those of you old enough to remember November 1969 (when AAHPER professional dues were $15), you might be reminded of some other events that occupied the world stage during that month: * President Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation on both television and radio, asking that the "silent majority" of Americans join him "in solidarity" to support his policies concerning the Vietnam War (November 3). (3) * National Educational Television (the predecessor of the Public Broadcasting Service [PBS]) aired the debut of a children's television program entitled "Sesame Street" (November 10). (3) * Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published an account of unarmed Vietnamese villagers being slain by U.S. combat troops in a hamlet that would forever after be known, both historically and viscerally, simply as "My Lai" (November 12.) (3) * A few days later, between 250,000 and 500,000 peaceful marchers protested the Vietnam War in Washington, D.C. (November 15). (3) * The second manned lunar landing took place with Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Man Bean exploring the moon's "Ocean of Storms" (November 19). …