Pat and Steve were in love, but they didn’t have intercourse. In fact, neither had intercourse with anyone. They had lots of fun together and were taking it slow. Then Pat went away to work at a resort for the summer. They planned to write, talk on the phone, and resume their relationship in the fall.
At the resort Pat met Willie -- a gorgeous guy. Willie was anybody’s dream and VERY experienced. The relationship became very sexual very quickly. Willie made it very clear that sex was a necessary part of the relationship, and even as Pat was thinking about how to say "NO," they had intercourse. Pat was swept away with the excitement of being with Willie. But when the summer was over, Willie made it clear that their romance was over. He had other plans back at college.
Pat returned home, confused, guilty, and unable to tell Steve anything about the summer romance. A week later Willie called to say that an old sexual partner had tested positive for HIV. Willie said he was going to get a test for HIV and he thought Pat should get one, too. Pat didn’t know what to do, and waited a week for some symptoms. When none appeared, Pat decided that everything was probably okay.
Meanwhile, Pat and Steve resumed their relationship and Pat realized that love for Steve was real. When Pat and Steve began to move towards intercourse, Pat said they’d better use condoms. Steve refused -- absolutely. Condoms were for people who slept around! Pat tried to persuade him, but couldn’t change his mind. Pat didn’t know what reason to give for using condoms -- without telling Steve about the summer romance.
Pat tried to talk with Mom, and told her that a friend was worried about being infected with HIV. Mom said, "That’s exactly what happens with all these kids having sex these days!" Pat decided to drop the conversation.
And in health class they were due for some lessons on AIDS, but the teacher was not very comfortable talking about sex. Furthermore, he thought that all this teaching about "safer sex" really gives young people permission to go ahead and do it! Somehow, he used up the 8 weeks of health teaching about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.
Finally, Pat gave in. Pat and Steve had intercourse without using a condom for protection.
Form groups of three. Tell students, Discuss your feeling about these five characters with the group. Rank their behavior from 1-5. Number (1) would be the person who behaved most responsibly, down to number (5) the person whose behavior was least responsible from your point of view. (Explain the difference between responsible behavior and responsibility, meaning culpability.) Point out that we do not know Pat’s gender from the story. Ask if it makes any difference if Pat is male or female. Ask students to give reasons for their judgments on all characters. Everyone doesn’t have to agree.
___Pat
___Willie
___Steve
___Mother
___The Health Ed teacher
When students are done ranking, allow two or three volunteers to summarize their group discussion. Then ask each group to rewrite this story so that the characters behave more responsibly. Ask each group to give the rewritten story a new title (like Speak Up for Safer Sex). Solicit the reading of rewrites, with brief discussion.
Ask class to describe and evaluate this lesson, and to underline irregular verbs in the past tense in the reading. The instructor may wish to review difference between past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs before asking students to underline irregular verbs.
Adapted from Teaching Safer Sex, Brick, et al, 1989.