Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Sesame Street and Sex Talks

How young should children be taught about sex? How young should children be taught about AIDS? And most importantly, how would you answer these questions from a four year old who is holding a microphone? In a new documentary "Please Talk to Kids About AIDS" a four year old and six year older ask adults at the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto some of these important questions. While I'm still not sure that a four year old or six year old in America need to know about those questions I do believe that teaching AIDS education in countries where the epidemic is more present. In a social work course in South Africa at University of Cape Town I learned about the varied type of AIDS education programs in the country, still widely focused on middle school and older children. Obviously the problem needs to be addressed differently in different places. Hopefully this documentary can shed some light on just how these subjects can be taught to young children because as times change and children ask questions younger and younger the answers should be ready.

The documentary is available on EZtakes. Let's see just how prepared adults are with answers.

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