The View from Here: HIV is too much for growing minds
You don’t have to think long or hard about children to realize the proposed content of the PBS children’s show Sesame Street will be difficult to explain.
Announced this week at the International AIDS Conference in Spain where Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was booed, the newest addition to Bert and Ernie is an HIV-positive female muppet who is expected to make the show as one of its regulars.
Expected to air in South Africa this fall, talks are supposed to be underway to include a similar character in the United States.
No offense to anyone with HIV or AIDS or anyone affected by it directly or indirectly, but this is a bad idea. The last I knew, Sesame Street was about learning to put two syllables together to form a word or, as best as I can recall, watching that bald guy get numbers painted onto his head.
Because it’s a show specifically aimed at children who ask a lot of “why” questions at that age, there will be a lot more answers parents have to give after watching.
While all parents should be ready to explain numbers and letters in the spirit of education, I’m not ready to discuss sex, intravenous drug use, blood transfusions or other reasons how HIV gets transmitted with a toddler. How can you explain HIV truthfully without going into all that?
The reality of the explanation would be a nightmare, especially if one considers the typical day of, for example, a stay-at-home mother. After spending most of the morning trailing around after a child’s messes, answering the question of “why” a zillion times and having even the simplest request answered with a loud “no,” they settle down for a little Sesame Street.
Apparently, the show would not go into a lot of detail and that’s supposed to be the sensitivity factor – saying it would be appropriate for the age group and would address things like what to do if someone gets cut. But that’s where all those preschool-inspired questions come into play.
Forcing the issue will force the parent to explain how people get HIV. And my guess if that the truth gets sugar coated then, with the child’s age in mind to protect his or her innocence, what’s the incentive for tangible protection measures later on?
Most parents stumble through the names of private body parts. Can we expect parents to be better at explaining a sexually transmitted disease to someone who doesn’t have the reasoning to understand all of it yet?
It’s easy to explain that things die – natural causes or God’s calling – but it’s not so easy to explain why things, or people, do.
Of course it would be silly to say a problem doesn’t exist or shouldn’t be discussed, which is probably why Sesame Street is choosing to address it. The HIV-positive character is supposed to be shown in South Africa, which happens to be one of the most heavily affected areas in the world, where one in nine people are reported to have HIV.
While HIV and AIDS are no joke here, we are not one of the poorest continents in the world. We have plenty of other options for education about this threat to world-wide society. We don’t need to use Sesame Street to get the word out. The show is fine as it is.
It’s a simple question of timing, or more accurately, the audience’s age. And while many people make the argument that sex education should be best left up to parents, there are no doubt outside influences parents have to deal with.
HIV and AIDS are reality – a sign of the times – but I wish this proposal to include preschoolers in a massive education effort wasn’t one of those outside influences. We don’t need to place this burden on toddlers.
(Amy Satterwhite is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)