Does My Five-Year-Old Really Need to Know about HIV

by workingdad | More from this Blogger

We're pretty direct and frank in our discussions with our children. The only euphemisms we use are related to "number 1" and "number 2" - no, we don't use those terms, but you get the idea. We use the clinical terms for pretty much everything else. It's important not to attach any shame to such discussions, and we do a decent job of this.

We received an announcement about the AIDS/HIV education our children will be receiving. There are apparently two phases to the lessons the children receive - in all grades, K through 8. The first is explaining what the disease does and how it is transmitted. The second phase involves prevention. The children are required to receive the lessons about transmission, while parents may pull their children from the discussion of prevention. The material is, we are told, age-appropriate.

I know there are a few moms at our school who are upset at this. Why does a little kid, 5 or six years old, have to learn about this horrible disease? I'm sure that's what they are thinking. And I suspect that many kids will be absent when the teacher talks about preventing the spread of HIV.

I'm very ambivalent and concerned myself. I do want my children to know about a disease like this, and other STD's. And of course I don't think they will talk about prevention of the disease in terms of telling the kindergarten class not to have unprotected sex. Yet I wonder if we are going to get the kids needlessly worried that they might catch AIDS, even if given age-appropriate education on it.

You can show me all the statistics you want and how bad AIDS education is in this country and in places where the epidemic is much, much worse. You can give me numbers that show such programs work. Fine. I want them to succeed. I want to stop the spread of AIDS. But I still wonder if the kindergarten class needs to know about this stuff. I'm not worried about them thinking that sex itself becomes a hazard, unless the program takes the idea that "sex is death" from Barbara Bush's thoughts on AIDS prevention.

I'm not even all that worried that in giving them certain kinds of no's then they will only get more and more curious. Maybe that would be an issue for older children. But jeez, the kid's not even six yet!

We tackle heavy subjects in our house. We really do. I was just hoping for a little more time before having to deal with stuff like AIDS.

Learn more about workingdad

lives in the New York City area with his wife and two daughters, 6 and 3. He is a college professor who has written essays about Media and the O.J.

View Full Profile | More from this Blogger