What Is Death Education?

Lewis Thomas proposes that the inundation of society with detailed, step-by-step, almost instructional style gruesome books on the subject of death influences the way in which people consider the topic, creating the impression that there is a right way and a wrong way to approach death and a need for instruction on the matter. His technique in addressing the topic of death involves

Death is something that people must deal with every day in our world, and there are several aspects of death that sometimes the living do not consider. For example, how does one celebrate or remember passed loved ones? What happens to you when you die? How would you like to be remembered? There are multiple ways to answer these questions, and examining differing points of view can be enlightening.

When it comes to death the typical person is not that knowledgeable about or understanding of death. People are very scared when the topic of death arises. We all want to live forever with no fear of having to explore the aspect of us dying and having to plan a funeral or their own funeral. Death is never an openly discussed topic. With death and dealing with it we are lucky to have the book Final Gifts by Callanan and Kelley. They have provided a ton of information to help us to grow strong and at ease with the area of death. I will tell my feelings on the book and how it has impacted me.

Death has always been and will be a topic that just a few want to talk, but since time immemorial man has worshiped their dead, and this is reflected in the various rituals and forms of burial. The anguish of death has been considered the deepest anguish of man. Death is the inevitable companion of life, is the final stage. It can occur at any age, suddenly or after a long illness. Despite knowing that someday we will have to die the death of a loved one is a terrible fact, very difficult to accept, that affects everyone around the deceased person. When the link with the deceased breaks, the suffering is so great, that they put into question the fundamentals of being, of human existence and our deepest beliefs, affecting significantly the basic family and social relationships.

Corr, C. A., Corr, D. M., & Bordere, T. C. (2013). Death & dying, life & living. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

According to (Liming & Dickenson 2011., p.3) “thanatology is the study of dying, death, and bereavement.” I believe that the study of death will be a topic to be discussed and forever researched. There are many different aspects of death that I believe people can study, rather it be cultural believes, medically researching different processes of death, or even just what your own personal discovery of what death exactly is or what happens after death. No one can interview the dead. No one can find out if death is peaceful, or if there is life after death, or what death feels like. So for this topic of defining thanatology I wanted to look at the studies of peoples near death experiences, interviews from people who are experiencing death, the different cultures behind viewing death, and lastly the communication skills needed for health care professionals to develop in order to discuss death and dying amongst the patient and their family

Death is a universally experienced phenomenon. In the United States alone, over 2.6 million people die each year (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). For practitioners, it is of utmost importance to better understand the process of grief to develop better interventions for bereaved individuals.

In 1925, Langston Hughes wrote in his poem “I, Too, Sing America” “Nobody’ll dare say to me “Eat in the kitchen,” then.” He responds to Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing”, a poem about America’s greatness. When Hughes wrote his poem, blacks were extremely oppressed. They had no rights, such as not being allowed to eat in the actual restaurant. Throughout the book A Lesson Before Dying, set around the time of 1930, Ernest J. Gaines presents the same issues and the narrator, Mr. Grant Wiggins, wrestles with them throughout the book. An imbalance of power overtakes the the areas of education, the justice system and colorism in the town of Bayonne, Louisiana, and though some imbalances present hope, some are still wrestled with today. Even after desegregation, the education system still presents discrimination that keeps some inferior to others. A lack of supplies for black schools, causing a lesser education for the students, aids in the educational imbalance. Grant stressed to the white superintendent “Many of the books I have to use are hand me-downs from the white schools, Dr. Joseph, and they have missing pages” (Gaines 57). Grant’s school system fails its students. The supplies given to these schools do not help the students at all, and hinder the children’s learning. They give inadequate education to keep the whites more powerful, and the Superintendent encourages it. The superintendent places his worries on looks and hygiene during his visit to Grant’s school,

When an individual dies, their death can greatly impact the loved ones they leave behind. Each mourner may feel and perceive the death differently from one another, but one common factor that can influence the mourner’s beliefs, values, and views about a person’s death is their culture. Their culture can regulate the way the mourner copes with the death of a loved one, what they do with the physical deceased body, and how they may honor the dead afterwards (Cartaret, 2011). For me, my culture is relatively related to the Catholic, Hispanic American culture, which is a broad and subjective category, but it is what I believe that guides my views towards life and death. I have additionally chosen to learn about the cultural practices of Hinduism of Indians on death

Death at any stage in life is personal and holds different meanings to different people. Society places a great deal of meaning on death based upon age, situation, and their personal experiences and beliefs. The viewpoints of death and dying in early childhood are limited; however, children have a basic understanding of death by the age of two through their own observations of family members (Berger, 2008). Children who are dying often fear death as they do not have a fully developed concept of dying and associate death with abandonment (Berger, 2008). At this life stage, it is important to have guidance from his or her parents to gain a better understanding of death and dying.

People die everyday all over the world. In United States, people use hundreds of different words to describe death. Generally, people that grow up in the United States tend to view death as a taboo subject and are seen as a topic that should be kept behind closed doors and contracted with an individual or family. A belief system that so many individuals hold to be true has been shaped over the past century. In this culture, death has become something that is enormously feared and as a result, some people stop living their lives to his or her highest potential because of their fear of dying. The effect that death has pertains to individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicities. But unfortunately, how death is viewed it has become more and

Death is something not much people talk about; therefore, it’s usually hidden. In the book Smokes Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory, Caitlyn Doughty discusses how the America culture is in denial of death. There are an abundance of reasons why people do not want to face death. This could be because fear of pain or leaving their loved ones behind. In addition, death is also displayed very differently in television compared to reality. We are a society in denial of death. Society should expose children to the reality of death because death is inevitable. I agree with Caitlyn Doughty that our culture hides death and this denial is a “root cause of [...] problems in the modern world.”

The segregation era was one of the most tragic events in mankind. Blacks were not only not considered as upper class citizens, but they were also not considered as people. An important message that the reader is going to realize quickly is regardless of someone’s color, there is much more to them then their outer surface. The novel a Lesson before Dying teaches the reader many valuable lessons ranging from race, prejudice, faith and hope. This novel is also sure to sure to teach the reader the three most important lessons before dying. Count your blessings, the purpose of education is not only make careers but to create minds, and finally, the secret to happiness is the acceptance of one’s self.

Death and dying is a natural and unavoidable process that all living creatures will experience at some point in life, whether it is one’s own person death or the death of a close friend or family member. Along with the experience of death comes the process of grieving which is the dealing and coping with the loss of the loved one. Any living thing can grieve and relate to a loss, even children (Shortle, Young, & Williams, 1993). “Childhood grief and mourning of family and friends may have immediate and long-lasting consequences including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, behavioral disturbances, and school underachievement” (Kaufman & Kaufman, 2006, p. 61). American children today grow up in cultures that attempt to avoid grief and

On Death and Dying By Elisabeth Kubler-Ross For my book review, I read On Death and Dying, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Dr. Kubler-Ross was the first person in her field to discuss the topic of death. Before 1969, death was considered a taboo. On Death and Dying is one of the most important psychological studies of the late twentieth century. The work grew out of her famous interdisciplinary seminar on death, life, and transition. In this paper, I give a comprehensive book review as well as integrate topics learned in class with Dr. Kubler-Ross' work. Like Piaget's look at developmental stages in children, there are also stages a person experiences on the journey toward death. These five stages are denial/isolation, anger, bargaining,