The work in Unit One created a foundation for the explorations of this curriculum. Medical vocabulary and the concepts of early detection and screening were introduced. Learners had the opportunity to reflect and share health behaviors, experiences, and attitudes. In Unit Two, the class is guided in a more focused direction. The general discussion about health will now be narrowed down to look specifically at cancer. Students will develop a basic understanding of cancer as a disease. Cancer-related vocabulary is introduced. Cancer facts will be identified and myths dispelled. There is an underlying focus on breast and cervical cancer in these general cancer activities. A similar format to Unit One will be followed. The exploration begins with what learners think, know, and feel; from there you and your learners will construct skills and knowledge.
Discussions of cancer may bring up issues and feelings, especially for anyone in the class with a loved one who has survived or died from the disease. Hopefully, the activities in Unit One helped to set a comfortable and supportive environment for discussion. However, it is important to continue to let students know that you want to make the classroom a safe and supportive place for learning about cancer. Personal and private information is shared only by choice.
Skill development in Unit Two is focused on vocabulary enrichment and reading comprehension. Word attack strategies are taught and dictionary skills are developed through the use of the HEAL:BCC Word List. Students will explore and clarify the differences between fact and myth. Learners will be engaged in small writing tasks, group discussions, and information-gathering activities. The Community Health Wall can continue to be a forum for student writing and for sharing information with the larger school community. Learners will begin to explore health resources in their communities by collecting breast and cervical cancer pamphlets from their local clinics and hospitals in order to create a mini-library in the classroom.
Cancer is a difficult topic. Terry Tempest Williams in her book Refuge identifies its power eloquently.
Cancer. The word has infinite power. It kills us with its name first, because we have allowed it to become synonymous with death. The Oxford English Dictionary defines cancer as "anything that frets, corrodes, corrupts, or consumes slowly and secretly." A person who is told she has cancer faces a hideous recognition that something monstrous is happening within her body. Cancer becomes a disease of shame, one that encourages secrets and lies, to protect as well as to conceal. And then suddenly within the rooms of secrecy, patient, doctor and family find themselves engaged in war. Once again, medical language is loaded with military metaphors: the fight, the battle, enemy infiltration and defense strategies. I wonder if this kind of aggression waged against our bodies is counterproductive to healing? Can we be at war with ourselves and still find peace? How can we rethink cancer?
Source: Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge. New York, NY: Random House. Inc., 1992.
The concept of cancer is indeed very frightening to people. Many believe that cancer equals death. In addition, scientist have been trying to find the cause of cancer and are identifying more and more potential carcinogens. Suddenly, we live in a society where everything seems to cause cancer, and a new fatalism has developed. Science is making progress, but a great deal is still unknown about this disease. What can we do?
Medicine has made significant progress, so that cancer early detection and screening do make a difference. This curriculum is dedicated to conveying critical breast and cervical cancer early detection and screening information. It is a major concern that many people do not take advantage of opportunities to engage in early detection and screening. As noted in the introduction, findings published in Health, United States 1998 indicate that people with lower incomes tend to die at a younger age and are less likely to have health insurance coverage, receive screening tests, or make doctor visits than those with higher incomes. The HEAL: BCC Curriculum is designed to help learners in adult learning centers rethink cancer and gain access to free or low-cost cancer screening opportunities.
Cancer is a disease that generates many different reactions. One teacher's class responded to this topic by asking, "Why should we talk so much about cancer? If we talk and talk about cancer we will end up feeling sick." Other teachers have learned the burden that cancer carries in some cultures. A cancer in the family can cause a whole family to be treated as outcasts by their communities. These responses do not mean that this topic should not be pursued in class. However, as you embark on this unit of the curriculum, it is important that you listen to and acknowledge what cancer means to your learners and why.
Sorting through beliefs is key to the goals of this curriculum. For example, in Lesson 1: Cancer: Facts and Myths learners will sort cancer facts from myths. The sorting of myth from fact can become complicated by deeply-held beliefs and/or fears about cancer. It is important that these facts and myths be discussed and understood. Myths accepted as fact can be obstacles to early detection and screening.