Death Education

Humans have grappled with the mystery of death since they realized their own mortality. This ultimate cognitive and emotional challenge to make meaning of the cessation of life and its aftermath for the deceased and those surviving has led to a rich history of education about death across all cultures and at all ages of the life span. Death education may be defined as the informal or formal teaching and learning about the many facets of dying, death, and loss. This entry considers the various forms that death education may take; the goals of death education; its history and place in contemporary society; the relationship of death education to culture, religion, and life span development; and current issues in death education and its potential for the future.

Format and Goals of Death Education

In its most common form, death education occurs informally whenever discussions about death arise. For the young child, it may appear as an event leads to the inevitable questions directed to parents—a teachable moment. It may also occur for married couples who, in completing an advanced directive, desire to avoid legal issues relating to the fate of an individual hospitalized in a vegetative state. In such cases, death educators may be parents, friends, religious leaders, books, movies, or any venue in which death- and dying-related information is conveyed.

Death education also is experienced on a more formal level, such as in a classroom environment where an instructor guides a group of learners in understanding the content areas of death, as well as to help them interpret their own values and experiences with death. Such formal forms of death education take on a variety of formats, from short continuing education workshops and modules embedded in a broader course to semesterlong courses. In this instance formal death education classes are sometimes found in high schools but more commonly in university curricula, in nursing and medical colleges, in religious institutions, at conferences on death and dying, in webcasts and satellite conferences, or in worksite in-service programs.

Increased recognition of the importance of both types of death education is due to a number of factors that affect contemporary society. Medical technology has increased the length of life, but these advances confuse many as they try to understand the many implications of the prolongation of life. Globalization has enriched individuals' encounters with others with different traditions, including the rituals and rites of passage directed toward the end of life. And television, the Internet, and other forms of instant communication have made the transmission of information almost immediately accessible to anyone.

The goals of death education tie into personal, intellectual, and professional needs. On the personal level understanding dying and death aids in the clarification of personal values, leads to selfunderstanding, and helps one to set priorities in life. It is through the lens of mortality that people determine what matters to them the most, examine their religious teachings, and ponder the existence of an afterlife. Death education can also provide necessary understanding of the process of dying or instruction on how to speak to and help those who [Page 317]are grieving. Most importantly, it can provide the tools that may be helpful when information or support, such as treatment, hospice, or funeral arrangement, needs to be accessed in the face of crisis.

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