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In the Schools: Health Class Coverage
Essex County is located in the Northeastern corner of New Jersey across the Hudson River from New York City. Essex County is adjacent to Bergen, Hudson, Union, Passaic, and Morris Counties. Of these counties, Hudson, Passaic, and Union also have numbers of HIV/AIDS cases in epidemic proportions; there does not appear to be an end in sight for the spread of infection and the cumulative numbers of HIV/AIDS diagnoses are mounting. Bloomfield, my hometown where I lived until age 9, is in northeastern Essex and is adjacent to Newark and East Orange, the two towns with the highest cumulative AIDS cases in the county. Bloomfield has an AIDS problem of its own, with 184 cumulative AIDS cases since the beginning of the epidemic. This data puts Bloomfield’s HIV/AIDS rate at 386, just above the national rate, 339. Just as the country considers AIDS a problem, so does Bloomfield. Elementary school students are educated about the risks of contracting HIV and also that people with HIV/AIDS are just like everyone else. Students are taught that HIV cannot be transmitted through classroom contact or coughing and sneezing so that they know it is “ok” to play with peers that have HIV/AIDS.
When I moved to West Caldwell in 4th grade, I did not receive notable HIV/AIDS prevention education in 4th and 5th grade, the remaining elementary school years. Only in 1st grade is a focus put on HIV/AIDS during class; AIDS is addressed as a “very, very, bad, incurable disease” that can be “caught” by mixing blood. It is made clear to the children that coughing, sneezing, and hugs cannot spread AIDS. An emphasis was put on avoiding the playground and after school ritual of becoming “Blood Brothers” by rubbing bloody cuts with others.
In middle school and high school, Health class addressed mainly genetic diseases and there was little to no mention of HIV/AIDS, even during discussion of diseases that can be transmitted through sexual relations or from mother to child. Health education in the Caldwell-West Caldwell school district does not, at any point, address the AIDS problem in New Jersey. HIV is treated as a dangerous, but distant, disease. No attention is given to the fact that only miles away, the cumulative cases have amounted to such a number that the rates are higher than the national statistic. The service clubs in the high school do not address the local problem; any efforts to halt AIDS involve money and supplies being sent to Africa.
The Caldwell-West Caldwell school district is loosely compliant with the NJ Comprehensive Physical Education standards.7 The district is mostly compliant with the standards for elementary school education; out of 5 HIV/AIDS education-related requirements to be met by 2nd and 4th grade, only 1 isn’t met (Table 3). On the converse, of the 7 requirements for middle school AIDS-related education, only 2 are met in full. Both requirements for high school are met by the health curriculum for 12th grade students. Though the majority of requirements are technically “met” by the school district, there are more effective and comprehensive ways to introduce the material so that it holds weight and significance in the students’ minds. The schools can be a vital resource in battling the spread of the epidemic, but only if more valuable and complete curricula are made.
