Jean Q. Davis
We are fortunate to have the problem-solving model of the social development curriculum in which to teach clear information about AIDS. Students learn to consider a life experience and how it feels and then to consider solutions and consequences before they act. Also built in is a chance to practice new behaviors with role-playing. Every AIDS education specialist mentions this as crucial because students can know all the facts but unless they recognize the risk and behave accordingly how much they know doesn’t matter. It can all be irrelevant information unless there is a way of practicing preventive behavior in their social milieu. (Fisher, 1990)
One major factor in an AIDS instruction curriculum is the need of a safe environment for discussion and interpersonal trust of someone who is comfortable with the material. The classroom atmosphere is critical because students need to share what they know, what they don’t know, and what they think they know. They have to feel that their opinions have value, and they have to take a few risks in the process.
At the beginning of the AIDS week the review of a set of ground rules for the class is a good ideo. On a list of suggestions for helping students feel safe would be:
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no putdowns,
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be sensitive to other’s feelings,
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you have a right “to pass” not say anything,
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what’s said in the room stays in the room,
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there are no “dumb” questions.
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Students sometimes generate others.
A teacher must remember the tremendous diversity found in a ninth grade class in terms of maturation, ethnic and cultural background, and education. Another way of looking at a class for AIDS week was developed by the American Red Cross (1987). They suggest visualizing a classroom as some students:
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may be infected with the virus,
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may have a family member with AIDS,
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may have had a family member die of AIDS,
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may abstain from sexual activity,
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may use illegal drugs,
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may be sexually active,
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may have on alternative lifestyle,
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may have very different cultural values.
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