Just last year Ilene found out that her 12-year-old sister, Sherry, has a disease called diabetes. The disease has changed her family life. Her sister doesn't look sick, but her parents are always talking about the disease and how worried they are. Ilene watches as her sister gives herself injections and tests her blood from a prick on the finger several times a day. The entire family now eats different foods at specific times. Sherry is not the only one in the family who has diabetes. Her grandfather does, too. Ilene sometimes worries that she can get diabetes.

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Alonso's brother just died of AIDS The second-grade class wrote cards to Alonso and his family telling him how sorry they are about his brother dying. The children are afraid that Alonso has AIDS also and that they can catch it from him. The parents came to school one night to talk to the gym teacher. Some of them do not want their children to be in the same class as Alonso. Amy's mother told Amy that she does not have to worry about getting AIDS from Alonso even if he has it (which he probably doesn't). You don't get AIDS from playing with someone, but you do want to be careful around all children and get help, if they are bleeding. Some of the children are confused and afraid.

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Friends of Ilene and Alonso wonder - can you catch diabetes or AIDS? If your grandfather and your sister have it, will you or your parents get it? Can you die from it? I know that when I have a cold or the flu, I am supposed to stay away from my baby brother. Is he going to die also? How come Alonso's brother didn't get better? Didn't the doctor know what to do?

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Educators are faced with answering these and other questions about chronic and infectious diseases, including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS. The challenge is to provide age-appropriate, accurate information and to help children process and use this information to make responsible decisions that protect their health and possibly the health of others. The goal is to help young people develop a sense that they can have control over their health and that, by choosing behaviors that support their health, they can prevent many communicable diseases and manage the chronic ones.

Many things influence the commitment of elementary school classroom teacher to health education, including their own personal interest in health, the personal responsibility they feel toward the health needs of their students, the expectations of the school administration, and the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs to educate classroom teachers about health.

Most teachers have a subtle but powerful impact on students' health behaviors by the examples they set in eating habits, physical activities, responses to stress, substance use (including alcohol, tobacco, and over-the-counter drugs). Teachers are therefore unintentionally health educators of a sort. The health behaviors their students observe in them consistently, over many hours, make teacher modeling especially influential. The classroom environment and health topics that can be infused into the "reading, writing, and arithmetic" curriculum can have subtle but powerful effects on students. These efforts can make a difference in students ongoing health decision-making and prevention behaviors without compromising traditional curricula.

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Yet, the two scenario's remain... We all know the correct answers to give to the questions mentioned earlier, but how will they?

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