By Marco Ceccarelli
Modern day society’s increased focus on health, fitness and wellbeing plays a significant role in the way young people perceive themselves and those by whom they are surrounded. While new generations are better informed about healthy eating, drinking and the importance of exercise, there are also new risks involved linked to excessive dieting and body image. Head of Year 11 and teacher of religion and physical education at Perth’s Aquinas Catholic College, Rod Dowling, has seen the changing trends in health among young people over his 20 year career. He recently spoke to The Record Magazine journalist Marco Ceccarelli about young men, the promotion of healthy body images and the importance of the link between health and religious education.
“Young people are certainly better informed today about health than they were 20 years ago,” Mr Dowling said, reflecting on the progress which health education has made in the past two decades.
“Awareness surrounding the effects of smoking, for instance, can be considered one of the greater success stories of our times. Twenty years ago smoking was a central topic of discussion in health education. Today, given the negligible numbers of young people smoking in our schools, more attention can be directed to other health concerns, such as alcohol.”
The father of three has taught health and physical education, as well as religious education, at five different Catholic schools in Western Australia. These include Trinity College, Mater Dei College, St Luke’s College in Karratha, Kolbe Catholic College and, for the past eight years, Aquinas College. His passion and devotion for these two subjects have allowed him to witness the progress made in health knowledge in schools and identify areas that require more attention.
While he has devoted much of his expertise to physical education across a range of year levels and sports, a new area in health education has recently caught Mr Dowling’s attention: mental health.
Particularly among young teenage boys, he has noticed the difficulties linked to talking and opening up about problems such as anxiety, depression and coping with general pressures of life. Thanks to a growth in awareness around the issue, Mr Dowling stated that mental health has become a more talked about topic in schools and has also made its way into the school curriculum.
“We have seen significant growth in terms of awareness around mental health and we are gradually addressing it both in physical education and religious education,” Mr Dowling said
“This is in response to boys having to deal with significant mental health issues that have affected either themselves or someone they know. Understanding the effects of mental health has been an incredible learning curve for me.”
Speaking about anxiety and depression in young men, Mr Dowling raised the issue of male body image – a current topic of conversation that, in light of a recent study conducted by The University of Sydney, has gained widespread media attention.
Published in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, the study discovered that dieting and extreme exercising has become as much of a problem for school boys as for girls, with 60 per cent of the young men out of the 2000 adults surveyed expressing dissatisfaction with their body. Furthermore, the study found that men with body image issues tended to suffer more from depression because of the stigma associated with seeking help with this problem.
Mr Dowling has taken note of the negative trend and believes that good health education, combined with Catholic teaching on self-respect, can be the key to addressing the issue.
“Here at Aquinas, when we talk about health and nutrition we’re becoming more aware of not only the effects of junk food but, for instance, the unnecessary use of protein powders and supplements and the male body image,” he said.
“We talk about what in some areas of society is upheld as the perfect image man. Yes, we teach that a healthy man should eat well and be active, but if we also say that if you’re experiencing anxiety or issues around mental health, then you can talk about them. We also challenge the notion of the typical male who doesn’t talk and is told to suck it up and get on with it. We’re trying to break down a lot of walls by saying that there’s a whole spectrum of what being a man can be.”
The Catholic ethos of Aquinas College is playing a significant role in this transformation and is helping the countercultural push around body image.
“Being a Catholic school we encourage our students to take a holistic view of the aspects of self, and this includes the spiritual side. Our Year 11 retreat program focuses on the journey of becoming a man and considers the aspect of faith, the internal, as a very important element of this journey,” Mr Dowling said.
Reflecting on a particular aspect of Catholicism that has helped him to steer students in the right direction, Mr Dowling referred to a biblical passage he was recently inspired by.
“I have talked about the notion that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and must therefore be respected. When we discuss creation we speak about showing respect for creation and, since we have been created by God, we must show respect for ourselves,” he said.
Looking ahead, Mr Dowling dwelled on the importance for young people to find moments in which to slow down and take a break from a very fast-paced society – no small thing to say for a man who has been very active his whole life.
“It is very important to stop and have moments of contemplation. The challenge for us today is to make our young people aware that they can move away from focusing solely on achievement and success and become the people who they were created to be,” he said.
From page 9 and 10 from Issue 4: ‘Health’ of The Record Magazine