[Health education at school]

The major health problems of our time cannot be solved only by the physicians. Despite important scientific advances, the number of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, bronchopathies and drug addictions increases. Prevention is a way of improving this alarming situation. Actually, the health of our contemporaries largely depends on themselves. For example, in a world without tobacco, one third of cancers and ninety per cent of lung and larynx tumors would not occur. Thus, the protections of human being's and nature's health are equally essential. Both are the State responsibility. Including hygiene in school education is a critical necessity in view of teaching young French students good health practices by which they will be impressed all their life. School has not only to teach but also to educate. This wish is in agreement with the Declaration of Child Rights voted by the General Assembly of United Nations on November 20, 1959. Unfortunately, the signatory nations do not put in practice this resolution which states that children must be protected against social risks. Descartes believed that "if the human species can be improved the means must be searched in medicine". This essential mission belong today to the educative system from home to school. At the dawn of the third millennium this "children institution", as Montaigne said, may provide health to future generations.