For schools, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) initially represented a policy problem requiring legal and public health experts to assess their ability to exclude students or staff infected with the human immuno-deficiency virus. As the crisis over the potential presence of people with AIDS in the schools abated and with the growing recognition that the disease was not confined to particular risk groups, educators turned toward their pedagogical function. To create classrooms in which children can feel safe to explore and learn about AIDS, drugs, poverty, and homelessness, educators must accept that children live in a world where these issues are encountered at an earlier age than most of us would prefer. Providing this type of environment for children requires the support of teachers as curriculum makers capable of responding to their students' immediate concerns regarding AIDS and related topics while cognizant of the broader bodies of knowledge with which they may be connected. This approach will not work through the imposition of lesson plans from above; instead, administrators must allow adequate time for staff development in which teachers can express their fears. Ultimately, the AIDS curriculum will be more about life than death, more about health than illness, and more about the body politic than the body physical. (24 references) (KM)