There is so much information that teachers should have, trainings that we should go through, knowledge that would be useful within the classroom setting, and yet there never seems to be enough time or effort put into keeping us all up to date on how to treat different situations. I really enjoyed having the lecture about HIV/AIDS and how that can really impact us as teachers in a classroom setting. Hearing all of the statistics about children who were impacted by HIV/AIDS was really astounding to me and it broke my heart. What was one of the most sobering facts that we were given was the idea of mothers being able to pay around four dollars to keep their children from being infected by the virus at birth so that it cannot be passed along to them, but for so many people, either they do not know that they have HIV/ AIDS or they are not given the information that that treatment is a possibility. So many students could be spared from living with this debilitating disease if this information was made more mainstream. HIV AIDS is preventable. So why is this outbreak still reaching pandemic levels in the United States and worldwide? Before this lecture, I do not think that I even understood the severity and how this continues to be such a problem all over the world. I am really thankful that we now have this information that will most likely be a part of our lives because of the number of people who are directly or indirectly affected by HIV/AIDS. I think that if I had not been given the opportunity to sit in on this lecture, then I would be afraid of the situation if one of my students had HIV/AIDS. So, how can we better prepare ourselves for the real world of pain and disease and sadness that is inevitably going to touch our students?
This lecture was so beneficial for us to hear. I certainly never knew about the possible preventative treatment for this disease before the baby is born, so I am sure that many other people would not know of this either. As educators, it is our job, at least in middle school and high school, to teach awareness of the disease, how it can be prevented, and treatments that are available. And as far as students who are already affected go, all we can really do is to have compassion for their situation and offer any outside counseling/support that we can.
ReplyDeleteI agree about how important this lecture was! It is just scary to think that this may be the only information we receive. I was also surprised at how preventing this awful disease costs $4! If this was made more public, people would gladly donate to stop our innocent youth from being affected.
ReplyDeleteThis lecture was extremely eye opening. I feel it is sad that many pre-service teachers do not get the opportunity to become educated within the field and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to listen to the speaker on AIDS. However, I also think that the lecture really only touched the "tip of the ice burg." I know that is more than most people get, but I think more knowledge about the disease itself will only improve awareness and bring us steps closer to putting an end to the epidemic.
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