I taught aging once (that was enough). The one assignment that sticks in my
mind was to write their obituary as if they had died today (I claim no
originality for this, but forget the source). They found this particularly
powerful, and a large number wrote their obituary as if they had died in their
90's, peacefully in their sleep. The thought that they could die today seemed
too much for them.
don
Donald McBurney
"Renner, Michael" wrote:
> Paul -
> A long time ago, when I was on a temporary appointment at the start of my
> career, I taught death and dying (pretty much at gunpoint, since I wasn't
> qualified or even interested). As a total neophyte, I wasn't constrained by
> tradition or even knowledge of past practices. Here are a couple of things
> we did in that class:
>
> - Cemetary walk. We figured out a random sampling technique for the
> cemetary, and had students gather what information they could from
> tombstones (gender, birth year, death year, age at death, any clues about
> cause of death). We used the data to construct a death table for the town,
> average life expectancy, etc. We picked up the flu epidemic of 1918 (spike
> in deaths at all ages), both world wars (many headstones marked as war
> deaths, but also deaths in young men). I started out with this to buy me
> time to prepare -- I had one week's notice to teach a course I'd never taken
> -- but also to break the ice and get students used to the idea of being
> around death. I still remember that when we talked to the cemetary
> superintendent, he insisted that the persons buried there should be referred
> to as "residents" (not "bodies" or even "people buried here").
> - Tour of a local funeral home, including optional coverage of mortuary
> techniques (e.g., embalming) for those students who wanted it.
> - Panel discussion of local clergy (christian, jewish, muslim, hindu were
> all I could round up), talking about their faith's view of death, funeral
> traditions, etc. [This was a student population that 90% came from a
> christian tradition, so I emphasized that this was an academic exercise, not
> a chance to convert anybody]. This was a huge hit with students; they talked
> about it -- in constructive, thoughtful ways -- for weeks.
>
> Warn the instructor that many students take this class because they have an
> agenda; about half of my class had chosen it because they were dealing with
> death in some personal way (friend, relative, even some students with
> life-threatening conditions), and emotions can run high. Since I'm not a
> clinician, I made this very clear to students and really emphasized the
> academic nature of the subject. Even with that, I ended up serving as a
> bridge to the campus counseling center for a couple of students during the
> semester.
>
> I hope you get ideas from people better qualified than me, and from those
> who've taught the course more recently.
>
> Michael Renner
>
> ====REPLY TO MESSAGE=====
> Subject: dying and death
> From: Paul Schulman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: Sat, 02 Jan 1904 21:15:33 -0800
> X-Message-Number: 2
>
> I am asking this for someone who will be an adjunct on our staff: she will
> be teaching Dying, Death and Bereavement for the first time and would like
> to know what other people have done to teach this course--projects,
> assignments that worked well, etc. Thanks
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ====END OF REPLY TO MESSAGE=====
>
> -------------------------------------
> Michael J. Renner
> Department of Psychology
> West Chester University
> West Chester, PA 19383 USA
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Telephone: +1.610.436.2925
> Fax: +1.610.436.2846
> http://psych.wcupa.edu/renner_m/
> -------------------------------------
>
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