Aids Education- A Reality Check

Yes, I watch way too much CNN, but this floored me.

CNN had a segment on AIDS education in schools since AIDS Day was last week. Anyway, they videotaped a Q&A session in a 9th grade class.
The questions these high school freshmen were asking scare me to death. For instance:
"Is there a pill you can take to cure AIDS?" was one of the questions. And there were other questions equally as naive.

I honestly had no idea that kids as old as high school were so undereducated about this disease. Scary. Could it be we spend so much time teaching kids how to avoid pregnancy (which clearly isn't working out so well for us) that we forget about the even more dangerous aspects of unprotected sex.

I think the big problem with AIDS is that we've become complacent. People with HIV/AIDS can now be treated and live longer, healthier lives. Which is GREAT. However, I think it makes a lot of people get lazy. It dulls the threat.

I have no problem with abstinence being a component of sex ed, but I have a problem with it being the center of sex ed. People must be realistic, teenagers are going to have sex. And if they choose to do that, they should have all the information at hand about what the consequences and safest methods are.

You're exactly right Soledad. As it becomes a more acceptable conversation, it becomes less taboo- which is both good and bad.

I was just really shocked to see how naive the freshmen students were. I had no idea education was that lacking on this disease.

Maybe they should bring in AIDS/HIV patients into the schools to talk to the kids. I think it's easy to disassociate when it's information in a book or on video, but very hard to ignore when there's someone right in front of you telling you "I have AIDS/HIV and here's how I could have avoided it."

Who knows?