Health class? No ripping, good question. Our middle school doesn’t have the resources for that right now. Some kids do take the high school course in the 8th grade for credit, but not all of them. We settled on math as we have doubled up math and language arts and math courses. For example, I’ve got a second/third hour, fourth/fifth hour, and sixth/seventh hour math classes that are 90 minutes. One 30 minute social-emotional lesson per week barely makes a dent. I find it improves things as math is the most demanding of middle school subjects and my most socially adjusted kids end up in the advanced math courses. They’re the kids that can face setbacks, make goals, and progress toward those goals with success. Mathis patterns and puzzles waiting to be discovered and solved. Kids that see that can move math mountains.

A colleague of mine, a PE teacher does teach our high school credit health class. It has evolved way beyond Mr. Bolt-dick’s scare tactics pseudoscience nonsense, like girls can get pregnant through their navel.

Kids learn about personal nutrition, health habits, recognizing and managing stressors, goal setting, and psychology basics as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and personal problem resolving strategies. Much better than the old days.