j----_. - New York Civil Liberties Union

Mahopac 345
( Introduction
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. AIDS education should be conducted within a comprehensivehealth
education program stressing positive
values and behaviors. In such a program, students
should learn to:
• respect themselves
and respect others
• value nurturing relationships which occur within
families
• behave in ways that promote healthy growth and
development
• behave in ways that reduce risk by avoiding acts
which may bring harm at injury
• be responsible for their own behavior and its
consequences
• abstaínfrom sex, and understand that postpeningsexual
activity until adulthood increases one's
positive life choices for career and marriage
• abstain fromillegal
druguse.
It is within such a éontext of positive teaching about
health and personal responsibility that instruction
about AIDS should be provided.
Key considerations in developing a framework for
the establishment of these desired student behaviors
are the Regents Goals, especially Goal #5, which
stresses civic values. In its Action Plan to Improve Elementary
and Secondary Education Results in New York, the
Board of Regents has identified the values that each student
should develop: "Each student will respect and
practice basic civic values ... , which are those shared
values which we believe are necessary to the survival of
a free and democratic society - justice, honesty, selfdiscipline,
due process, equality, and majority rule
with respect for minority rights; respect for sele others,
and property; and the ability to apply reasoning skills
and the process of democratic government to resolve
societal problems and disputes:' Closely linked to these
values are values such as self-worth, protection of self
and others, responsibility for one's actions, and responsibility
tø the community.
Positive values, skills, and attitudes, as derived from
the Regents Goals for Elementary and Secondary Education,
permeate all of the curriculum materials developed
by the State Education Department. All of these
skills, attitudes, arid values aretrànsmitted through all
of the content areas. For example:
.• Socidl'Studies Syllabus: 'Gradeô Understandings
include that families exist in all communities,
though they may differ in type and organization,
• English Language Arts Syllabus: Grades K-12 Chart
of Expectations for Student Writers Grades K-3
includes that students will express personal
feelings, reactions, values, interests, or attitudes.
• Arts for Elementary School: A Syllabus identifies
anticipated learning outcomes to include that
students will understand other points of view.
• Elementary Science Syllabus include's among its
program goals that students will solve problems
effectively and with ease. . "
Instruction in all content areas should focus on helping
students gain the knowledge, skills, and experience
necessary for them to understand the importance of
civic values to our society. Instruction should also promote
the development of self-esteem, the maintenance
of health, and the understanding of the effects of drugs.
No single syllabus or guide in any content area is sufficient
to accomplish these goals. Lessons in the various
subjects should reinforce each other, collectively leading
to establishment of the goals. The AIDS guide has a
role to play in this process. However, the guide has not
been designed to accomplish this purpose by itself.
The Health Education Syllabus: Grades K-12 defines the
following outcomes for health education:
• to develop awareness of the role of health in the
lives of individuals, families, and the community
• to nurture the development of attitudes that place
a high value on optimal health
• to foster the development of self-awareness and
self-esteem
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