Teen Health Video Series: AIDS; Teen Health Video Series: Cancer

Can you imagine an 11th grade student in America who doesn't know what the phrase "safe sex" means or what a latex condom is? Me neither. It's been drilled into their heads by television, teachers, and peers to the point where your average 8th grader is probably more knowledgeable about sexually transmitted diseases than your average octogenarian. Still it's nice to see the same information in a lower-priced package, and with many AIDS-education tapes priced in the $100-$250 range, a $39.95 tape looks pretty good. Which is not to say that the AIDS tape in the new Teen Health Video Series is great--it ain't. Comprised almost entirely of talking head interview clips of teen peer educators and teens who are HIV+, the kids talk about common myths, explain how the AIDS virus is transmitted, repeat over and over the importance of using condoms (abstinence, by contrast, gets a brief halfhearted plug near the end of the show), and urges young people to take the HIV test. To pump up the volume, so to speak, so that viewers will listen, the kids sprinkle their commentary with candid slang like "horny," "getting laid," and "going down" (that some teens might feel uncomfortable about the language--and the video is recommended for grades 7-12--is probably only a figment of my imagination). AIDS delivers the basic information at a reasonable price--it doesn't make much use of the video format (no computer graphics, animation, etc.), compared to say No Rewind or Time Out: The Truth About HIV, AIDS and You (both 3/93)--but it gets the job done.Cancer, by contrast, expands on the simple talking heads format by having a doctor with a piece of chalk demonstrate on a blackboard how cancer cells replicate. Compared to the series' zippy opening montage, it's a little low-tech. Fortunately, the interviewees--children diagnosed with cancer ranging in age from pre-teen to young adult--are more than a little mesmerizing as they describe their world. One 12-year-old black girl with cancer takes viewers on a stroll through her wing of the hospital, sharing her feelings about losing her hair from treatment, the supportive hospital staff, and her hopes for the future. Except for one moment when she breaks down, this young girl displays more savvy, punch, and determination than you'd be likely to find in a lot of people twice her age. With cancer being detected earlier and reversal rates much higher than in previous decades, these kids look forward to resuming normal lives. While viewers will learn that there are many different kinds of cancers, and a handful of treatment options, the main thing they will take away is an understanding that people with cancer are people first: they're fighting a tough disease, but many of them are winning.Other titles in the affordably priced 15 volume Teen Health Video Series include: Abusive Relationships, Eating Disorders, Sexual Harassment, Sports Medicine, and Teen Pregnancy. Recommended. (R. Pitman)