AIDS and Schools: Educating those who are High-Risk

The general population of America today is having great difficulty facing a very frightening situation. Unfortunately, rather than seek information which might lessen anxiety about the subject, many people just choose to ignore the problem. Unwillingness to deal with a problem, however, only makes matters worse, and in this case, avoidance often leads to unrestrained disgust and hatred for those members of our society who are directly affected by the problem--our unfortunate citizens who are suffering with AIDS. Other members of our society, on the other hand, want to learn about AIDS, first to overcome their fears and then to replace the general lack of knowledge with understanding. These people realize that a whole generation of Americans is dying from the disease, and they know that those infected with AIDS must be treated as people who are victims of the disease, not as the disease itself. Nevertheless, a major problem exists in educating people about AIDS because, as Donna and Michael Lenaghan report, "controversy and politics surround the content, description, methodology, and strategy for any education initiatives" (17). Still, information exists in abundance, and much has been learned about AIDS since it was first widely reported in 1981. We now know what causes the disease. And, perhaps more importantly, we know how to prevent its spread (Colman 8). AIDS is not easily contracted. As communicable diseases go, AIDS is relatively difficult to catch as it does not easily find its way into the human body. In fact, it is far less contagious than the common cold, measles, or even gonorrhea. When armed with reliable information, a person can almost always avoid the infection. With such knowledge about AIDS available, it is not only important and necessary to share it, but it is also preventative. There is hope that with education will come caution, not the caution of fear, but the caution that knowledge brings. Many have come to realize that "in the absence of a cure or vaccine for AIDS, the most enduring and economical intervention is education" (Lenaghan and Lenaghan 17). It seems obvious, therefore, that effective implementation of AIDS educational programs will stop the spread of the disease among our high-risk groups: children, teenagers, and young women of child-bearing age.

Education for young children is important for two reasons. Knowledge will alleviate their fears in dealing with other children who have AIDS, and it will also prepare them for the behavioral modifications they will be taught as teens.