Pedro and Me Deep Question

In the book Pedro and Me by Judd Winick, we gain a unique perspective into the life of an adult gay male living with AIDS. We also gain perspective into the internal struggle of Judd, who lives in the same room as Pedro. Judd considers himself a "bleeding liberal" who has acceptance for all, however he is shocked by his own attitudes and feelings towards his situation when he discovers that his roommate is HIV positive. Judd struggles through an understanding of his own emotions and is strong enough to realize that his stereotypes and feelings are caused by his lack of education, rather than actual information. Have you ever experienced a situation where you unintentionally project your stereotypes onto someone else because you were lacking education? What happened? Did you take the initiative to learn more about the situation or did you stick to your guns? If you, as a teacher, are confronted with information that one of your students is HIV positive, or their parents are, how would you handle it? Would you project stereotypes on them, be professional but keep your distance, or would you try to further educate yourself and maybe even become involved in helping promote education about HIV/AIDS?