Saturday, September 22, 2012

Things They Should Invent: teach emergency response in school

Every once in a while there's a newspaper article saying that not enough people know CPR.

So why don't they teach it in school as part of required health classes?

I learned mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in swimming lessons.  I learned some first aid, some fire safety stuff including the theoretical part of how to use a fire extinguisher and some stuff about calling 911 in a baby-sitting course I took when I was 12 (and you had to be at least 12 to take this course).   I learned RICE and such for sports injuries in one of my middle school health classes. I took first aid and CPR training when I was 17 (and you had to be at least 17 to take this course).

But why not teach all this stuff in Grade 7 or 8 health class, at a point in the school career where everyone is still required to take the class?  I don't know why you have to be 17 for formal first aid courses (or had to 14 years ago) - it seems well within the reach of a young teen.  So teach everyone first aid and CPR, how to use a fire extinguisher and what you should and shouldn't to do put out a fire if you don't have a fire extinguisher, things you  need to know about calling 911 (What information do they need in what order?  If I'm out of town and call 911 from my Toronto cellphone, do I get connected to the local 911 or to Toronto 911?  If you don't speak English, what exactly should you say or do to get them to connect you to an interpreter?), what to do if you're in a car accident (even as a passenger), what to do if someone ingests poison - basically all the helpful information people need to know to handle emergency situations.

If everyone learned all this early on, we'd have a whole society that knows how to respond in an emergency.  Surely this is more useful than all the naming of parts that we had to do in middle school health class.

2 comments:

laura k said...

I learned it in school. It was a requirement in 8th grade health class. I'm surprised that's not the case here!

One big problem, though, is that CPR has to be renewed every so often. So you have to re-learn it all through adulthood. Not many people are going to be motivated enough to do that.

I am way behind on my Imp Strump reading. But I will catch up soon.

impudent strumpet said...

I can't believe it didn't spread and get taught in more places!

I'm pretty sure the most recent thinking is that, even if you aren't current, doing some kind of CPR is better than doing nothing. I can't google up the article because I forget the exact wording, but I recently read something (interview with someone of authority in mainstream media) saying that even if you don't know what to do, just copying what you see on TV is better than nothing.