Health behaviors of all students, including adolescents, have direct impact upon both personal well being and actualization of potential for maximum learning. This paper reviews examples of concrete health behaviors that both positively and negatively influence the two factors, and summarizes present objectives for the nation in the health promotion/disease prevention area. The major concepts presented include the underlying principles and theories of health behavior. The paper concludes with recommendations and concerns for practical implementation of health programs in the schools. Appendices include: (1) Surgeon General's goals for 1990 and objectives for the nation that can be directly attained or influenced in important ways by schools; (2) a typology of health behaviors; (3) Bloom's taxonomy of health behaviors; (4) locus of control summaries; (5) Piaget's stages of cognitive development and Kohlberg's stages of moral development and relationships between Piaget and Kohlberg; (6) a health belief model; and (7) the PRECEDE model. (Author/JMK)