I wish U.S. history texts for public schools would invest more in the history of public health practice in the U.S. Much of our prosperity can be traced to good public health practices — the wide availability of generally safe drinking water, effective systems to remove sewage and garbage, and other work to diminish illness.
So, in quick note form pirated directly from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (and because this has been hanging fire in my “to edit” box for way too long), here are some public health achievements I think the textbook editors need to consider for the next editions:
Ten Great Public Health Achievements — United States, 1900-1999
- Vaccination
- Motor-vehicle safety
- Safer workplaces
- Control of infectious diseases
- Decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke
- Safer and healthier foods
- Healthier mothers and babies
- Family planning
- Fluoridation of drinking water
- Recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard
More internet friendly version here, with links to articles on each one:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/tengpha.htm
Much more available. Here is a site, with a good section talking about careers in public health (for those career planning courses out there). Here’s a similar, less wowee site from the American Schools of Public Health (ASPH). Ethics issues here.
I include the links — there is no reason you can’t add this to your courses, especially in the sections that meet the standards on discussion of achievements of technology. Surely these are technological achievements of great merit.
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 