You joke about dancing and skits--one of the early elementary HIV/AIDS lessons recommends using glitter. The glitter, which sticks to students' hands as they touch an "infected" surface, represents the viral pathogen.
Elementary teachers have been required to do this for a few years now. I also "alter" parts of the script to not be so descriptive. Others just read "as is". Like any scripted lesson, it's best to adapt them to your students understanding and maturity of the subject matter. However, there are poems in the plans (but you have to look for them in the back) that are very sad and do bring understanding. Once the lessons are taught, we have to sign off that we did them.
And I'm sure a lot of the kids know more than the teachers. The comment from the teacher who is also a volunteer fireman is just too funny. The kids would probably get more from that than the scripted lessons.
I also like the fireman's comment. It gives you a lot to think about, maybe too much.
I had to do these lessons with my middle school students. I had to give up at least 10 periods to go through repetative information about the dangers of drinking and doing drugs (can lead to bad decision making) and descriptions of all the ways you can contract HIV/AIDS. Every lesson that involved sex I was instructed to talk about abstinence at least ten times during the lesson. My buddy teacher and I decided to split the kids up by gender which made the experience much more comfortable. I found that many of my students had no clue about their own bodies or safe sex. It's too bad health isn't mandated instead of lessons that are very science heavy and preachy.
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