The overall approach to health education is identified as highly individualistic in its emphasis on individual responsibilities, attributes and skills necessary for achieving health. Contradictions, distortions and gaps inherent in this model are revealed. These contribute to identifying this kind of health education as an ideology, which serves least the needs and interests of those children who are likely to experience the greatest ill‐health.

The ways in which this approach is inappropriate for schoolchildren are illustrated by a case study, which compares the drinking experiences of a group of children with the alcohol education materials designed for them.

To conclude, improvements to both health education for slow learners and more generally to health education in schools are discussed. These include the development of an approach which is both child‐centred, and critical in locating individual choices about health within the social, economic and political contexts of local communities and wider society.