Jean Q. Davis
Since education is viewed as the primary mode for prevention for adolescents, no expense is being spared in the development of curriculums. There are myriads of curriculums developed and being developed for every age group and to fit into many different subject areas. Unfortunately, information alone is not enough to persuade teens to protect themselves. Many teens know the basic. information now about AIDS and how it is transmitted but they are not changing their behavior. What teens need to know about AIDS seems to be well established, it’s the way they internalize that information so that they can make conscious decisions to protect themselves that is vitally important. AIDS curriculum is more than knowing why and what to teach it is also knowing how to teach, and how to get what’s taught translated into action.
One curricular mode gives a general basic overview of AIDS and its transmission. The basic premise is sound: you can protect yourself from HIV’ infection. M. Quackenbush states the concepts for this mode as being 1) HIV infection is caused by a virus, not a lifestyle, 2) HIV infection is not casually transmitted, 3) anyone can contract it if they have sex or share needles with an infected person. (Quackenbush,1988)
Another mode stresses not only the basic information about AIDS but also the setting in which the teaching is done. Some of the strategies mentioned for successful AIDS education of this variety are: 1 ) the context of the community values and diversity should be considered, 2) teaching should begin early in the school life of a child and continue, 3) adequate teacher preparation, 4) the curriculum should be developmentally appropriate, 5) acknowledge and include the range of potentials of human sexuality, 6) promote positive health values, and 7) it should support responsible decision-making. (Dodds, Volder, and Viviand, 1989) These are admirable and important strategies for successful AIDS education but there is a more comprehensive view that I find challenging and possible in the context of our ninth grade social development curriculum.
We ask adolescents to make a complex set of health and personal decisions, each of them crucial to their well-being, at a time in their lives when they are struggling with their own identity, just beginning to think about the future, and questioning those adults that have the information they need.
It is William Fisher’s (Fisher, 1990) contention that too many curriculums contain irrelevant information and that adolescents are not “provided with a precise script for preventive behaviors in their social milieu.” He also believes that pregnancy prevention, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV infection are related behaviorally and produced by similar factors. These include:
¥
|
unwillingness to acknowledge in advance sexual activity and preventive needs.
|
¥
|
failure to seek out relevant preventive knowledge.
|
¥
|
unwillingness to buy contraception/condoms in public.
|
¥
|
failure to discuss and negotiate prevention methods before sexual involvement.
|
¥
|
failure to do prevention in the moment it’s needed.
|
This integrated approach to the problem makes sense to me. To compartmentalize these issues makes it harder to include them in a school curriculum for all the reasons mentioned previously. To integrate the strategies for working with these issues means that we can be more focused on decision-making and can combine the educational and health resources.
The problem-solving model of the ninth grade curriculum with its five step approach is an ideal way of practicing preventive behaviors. We ask teens to 1) Stop, calm down and think, 2) Say the problem and how you feel, 3) Set a positive goal, 4) Think of lots of solutions, 4) Think of the consequences, and then 5) Go ahead and try the best plan. The students learn this framework before the AIDS week begins and it seems the perfect setting for practicing what Fisher calls his preventive strategies.
Fisher starts with the premise that adolescents must be helped to acknowledge their sexuality and make a self-assessment of their risk for pregnancy, STD, and HIV infection. Even though the sexual messages that are given to teens are very ambiguous they must get the message that sexuality is a part of life. The next step is to learn the relevant preventive behaviors for who they are. They may want to learn those things they can do to set a limit short of intercourse or they may want to learn safer sex techniques. A crucial step is to bring the decision into a conscious step—to choose to do prevention. Following that they need to practice how to negotiate with a partner what they want and then how they can do the preventive steps in a public setting. For instance, they may want to carry out a role play about going to buy condoms. Once they have done these steps, then they have to be able to practice them consistently, not just when it is convenient or when they feel like it. This is not an easy task for teens who are often caught up in the moment. Finally, they may change what they want and they have to be able to shift from one preventive mode to another.
Some issues related to successful curriculums are out of our control. Some teens see pregnancy as a solution for the very desperate conditions in their lives.