Death Ed

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Carolla

Carolla

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Heard a thought provoking item this morning on CBC radio - promoting death education in high schools. Since death is as much a part of life as sex is, and we have sex ed with positive effects, why not death ed so our society can become more knowledgeable and accepting and realistic about death as a part of life.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/...-essential-as-sex-ed-in-high-school-1.4064606

It's still something of a taboo subject of discussion in many circles, which doesn't serve us well.

What do you think?
 
Not really sure about a 'death ed' high school course. It could certainly be incorporated more into social studies.
 
Carolla said:
Heard a thought provoking item this morning on CBC radio - promoting death education in high schools. Since death is as much a part of life as sex is, and we have sex ed with positive effects, why not death ed so our society can become more knowledgeable and accepting and realistic about death as a part of life.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/...-essential-as-sex-ed-in-high-school-1.4064606

It's still something of a taboo subject of discussion in many circles, which doesn't serve us well.

What do you think?
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Sex shouldn't be a regular part of life for high school students.
 
Death Ed seems like a good concept but how do you teach it? Kubler-Ross' stages of grief and that sort of thing? Overview of religious ideas? Bring in an undertaker and a coroner as guest speakers? Could be rather grim, though tossing in some relevant humour (e.g. the Grim Reaper/Christmas in Heaven from The Meaning of Life) could help ease that.

Jae said:
Sex shouldn't be a regular part of life for high school students.
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Another thread, please. This one is about death, not sex. Far less enjoyable and even more inevitable.:D
 
Seems to me Kubler-Ross has pretty much fallen out of favour. The "stages" are considered to be more fluid and cyclical now.
 
paradox3 said:
Seems to me Kubler-Ross has pretty much fallen out of favour. The "stages" are considered to be more fluid and cyclical now.
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Well, I did say "and that sort of thing" :) Debunking them could be part of the unit on grief.
 
Mendalla said:
Death Ed seems like a good concept but how do you teach it? Kubler-Ross' stages of grief and that sort of thing? Overview of religious ideas? Bring in an undertaker and a coroner as guest speakers? Could be rather grim, though tossing in some relevant humour (e.g. the Grim Reaper/Christmas in Heaven from The Meaning of Life) could help ease that.



Another thread, please. This one is about death, not sex. Far less enjoyable and even more inevitable.:D
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@Carolla brought up sex in her Opening Post saying, "Since death is as much a part of life as sex is, and we have sex ed with positive effects..." When she includes a statement like that in her OP, surely I can respond to it.
 
Some of the discussion was also about creating more realistic understanding of the processes of death - that death, and CPR, and waking up from a coma etc. are not what we commonly see on television dramas. People have so many unrealistic expectations of what medical care can do, and not much way to learn the more factual side of things.
 
Jae said:
@Carolla brought up sex in her Opening Post saying, "Since death is as much a part of life as sex is, and we have sex ed with positive effects..." When she includes a statement like that in her OP, surely I can respond to it.
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Please stop jae. If you want to join the discussion on death ed, you are welcome to do so. Sex ed is not the topic here.
 
Carolla said:
Please stop jae. If you want to join the discussion on death ed, you are welcome to do so. Sex ed is not the topic here.
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Then you shouldn't have mentioned it Carolla. As you did - even making a claim about it, "Since death is as much a part of life as sex is, and we have sex ed with positive effects," it was certainly okay for me to respond to part of that claim.
 
I think one of the issues encountered would be HOW to teach it, not what to teach. As the parent of a teen and having been one myself, I know that both comfort with, and interest in, death are not high on that age group. I may have been more aware than most because I lost relatives during those years (a grandmother and an uncle) but even I am not sure how I would have handled such a course. Death often seems very far off and irrelevant or else is a "bummer" that you don't want to talk about.
 
Mendalla said:
Death Ed seems like a good concept but how do you teach it? Kubler-Ross' stages of grief and that sort of thing? Overview of religious ideas? Bring in an undertaker and a coroner as guest speakers? Could be rather grim, though tossing in some relevant humour (e.g. the Grim Reaper/Christmas in Heaven from The Meaning of Life) could help ease that.
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There's an organization called Pallium Canada - focused on providing palliative care education to health professionals, that is now also working to develop school programmes based on a public health model - according to their website. Seems a good route to go.
http://pallium.ca/compassionate-communities-2/compassionate-schools/
 
I agree Mendalla - it's not a popular subject - which is kinda the point of the physician in the broadcast - that we would benefit by it becoming more commonplace rather than an avoided subject. At one level I think kids & teens today may be even more exposed to death because of social media & news coverage - which was certainly much less of a factor in the past.

It's even something many medical/hospital staff don't have much comfort in discussing with their patients, which is interesting.
 
Waterfall said:
Well you could discuss Zombies or something that would grab their attention. Night of the living Ed?:)
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I don't see any great overwhelming need for universal Death Education going on. I would recommend it in the case of something happening like a classmate dying. A cross-the-board Death Ed scheme would take valuable time away from teaching youths things like English, History, Geography, Science, Religious Studies, etc.
 
Death is a topic worth discussing. It's going to happen to us all.
There have been a few "Death cafes" in towns around here. Haven't made it to one yet but appreciate that this is a topic that makes many uncomfortable and so they avoid it.
 
Tabitha said:
Death is a topic worth discussing. It's going to happen to us all.
There have been a few "Death cafes" in towns around here. Haven't made it to one yet but appreciate that this is a topic that makes many uncomfortable and so they avoid it.
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Plus youth believe they are immortal.....at least until they hit their 20's.
 
Tabitha said:
Death is a topic worth discussing. It's going to happen to us all.
There have been a few "Death cafes" in towns around here. Haven't made it to one yet but appreciate that this is a topic that makes many uncomfortable and so they avoid it.
Click to expand...

Was it here or on the old site that we had a thread on these? I should look for one around here. The concept interested me at the time.
 
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