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3 1293 10419

Date

This is to certify that the
thesis entitled
Death and Youth: An Exp1oratory

Study of Teacher Awareness

presented by

Irma Briggs-Hooker

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

Ph;D. Education

degree in

 

 

mam

Major professor

May 22, 1981

 

0-7639

 

 

OVERDUE FINES:
. . 25¢ per day per item
(fl - \ 7 W2:

H- '.;.“.,!, '- ‘ Mace in book return to remove
\ ““'-” a , charge from circulation records

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

) DEATH AND YOUTH:
{ AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
‘ OF TEACHER AWARENESS

By

Irma Briggs-Hooker

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fuifiiiment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Secondary Education and Curriculum

1981

 

 

@MS 7:? /

 

CD 1981

IRMA JANE BRIGGS-HOOKER

All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

ABSTRACT

DEATH AND YOUTH:
AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
OF TEACHER AWARENESS

By

Irma Briggs-Hooker

Purpose

Although there has been much interest in researching medical
professionals' attitudes toward death, no studies are available on
the attitudes of teachers toward death despite the influential
position held by teachers in young peoples' lives. Because of this
void, and the importance of the supportive adult in the clarification
process of conceptualizing and mourning death, it seemed most appro-
priate to center upon the teacher as a helping professional in death

education.

StudygDesign

 

Information was elicited by interview from twenty-six elemen-
tary and secondary teachers. Every grade level was represented.
These three exploratory questions served as the framework for the
study:

Are teachers aware of their students' experiences with
death?

If they are aware, do teachers use this awareness within
the school community?

 

 

Irma Briggs-Hooker

Further, are there differences in the awareness, and
the use of this awareness, between teachers of children
and teachers of adolescents?

Limitations of the Study

 

Two limitations were inherent in the study. The findings of
this study cannot be generalized beyond the limits of the population
studied. Second, the interviews were conducted by the author her-

self and the data were interpreted solely by the researcher.

Discussion

Teachers were aware noticeably of their students' experiences
with death; their awareness was used to a limited degree in verbal
interaction, curriculum planning and consultation with parents and
staff. Teachers of children were more aware, and used their aware-
ness considerably more, than did teachers of adolescents.

Students were the initiators most often of interactions about
their encounters with death. The death experiences affected the
behavior of individual students as well as the learning atmosphere
in the classroom. Teachers gave support often within the school
community; no consultation was offered and little consultation was
given to teachers.

Observational skills and self-awareness were suggested as the
foundation for teacher awareness. Teachers and students needed
support, but it was not available for them.

Recommendations for program development included: the inclu-

sion of the teacher into the health care system, particularly mental

 

 

Irma Briggs-Hooker

health; a review and expansion of the health care support system
within the school community, and an examination of pre-service and

graduate programs.

 

 

 

To Alison and Ralph

who re-opened the ultimate question for me

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . .
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Background . . . . . . . . . . . .

II.

III.

The Problem . . .
Significance of the Problem

The Population and Setting . . . . . . . .
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . .
Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . .
Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

YOUNG PERSONS AND DEATH: A REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH . . . . . . .

Historical Development of Society's Attitudes

Toward Death . . . . . . . .
Attitudes of Helping Professionals
Toward Death . . . . . . . .

Particular Needs of Adolescents in
Relationship to Death . . .
Children and the Process of

Conceptualizing Death . . . . . . . . . .
The Supportive Adult in the

Clarification Process . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . .

METHODOLOGY . .
Population and Research Setting .

Methodology . . . . . .
The Interview Guide

The Pilot Study . I 2 : I
Analysis of the Data . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . .

Page

LDmCDmNU'IU'IN N

12

 

Chapter
IV. FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH

Teacher Awareness of Students'

with Death .

Use of Teacher Awareness of Students'

Experiences with Death
Summary . .

V. SUMMARY, REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

Reflections on the. Research
Observations on the Interviews
Recommendations for Program Development
Recommendations for Research

FOOTNOTES .
BIBLIOGRAPHY .
APPENDICES . . . .

iv

Experiences

Page

91

91

116
T41

T43
T43
147
155
160
165
168
183

191

 

Table

(II-DOOM

LIST OF TABLES

Interviewed Teachers by Grade and/or Subject .
Student Responses to Experiences with Death
Number of Students' Death Experiences . . . .
Verbal Interactions Reported by Teachers .

Teachers' Observations of Their Uses of Awareness
for Curriculum Planning . . . . . . .

Teachers' Observations of Their Uses of Awareness
for Consultation . . . . .

Page
78
99

lOl
l20

124

136

 

 

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix Page
A. INTERVIEW GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . l92
8. #l3 TEACHER'S OBSERVATIONS OF RICK . . . . . . . l98
C. #l3 TEACHER'S OBSERVATIONS ON MARK . . . . . . . 203

vi

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My special thanks go to Dr. Louise Sause, Co-chairperson, who
guided me through my graduate program and the rough drafts of my disser-
tation. Special thanks go also to Dr. Charles Blackman, Chairperson of
my committee, who patiently guided me through the final stages of
writing the thesis after Dr. Sause accepted an Australian teaching/
consultant position. Rarely does one have an opportunity to work with
two such outstanding people as Dr. Sause and Dr. Blackman.

My appreciation is extended to my other committee members, Betty
Garlick, M.A., Dean Robert Green, and Dr. John Schweitzer, who substi-
tuted for Dr. Robert Green during his sabbatical, for their personal
interest and support.

Karen Fisher and Jo Grandstaff executed the typing and expert
attention to detail. Their skills made for a smooth finish.

To my daughter, Alison and my son, Ralph, for their love, patience,

endurance and encouragement in my writing, I dedicate this dissertation.

vii

 

 

 

Solomon Grundy,
Born on Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday,
And this is the end of
Solomon Grundy.

Anonymous childhood chant.

 

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background

There is a growing awareness in the United States, and the
United Kingdom as well, that modern persons, unlike their predecessors
are unable to accept death as a part of life. Although twentieth
century persons display great ability in mastery of their environ-
ments, technologically and scientifically, they have been unable
to unlock the mystery of the creation of life or the controlling
of death. Death can be postponed and the misery of dying can be
alleviated due to scientific and technological advances but as a
very perceptive eleven year old Australian boy wrote:
...Death is but death.
Death is like growing of people.
It cannot be stopped.1
If, as the young poet said, "Death cannot be stopped," then,
let us look at the manner in which death has been handled this
century. When the twentieth century literature on the subject of
death is reviewed, two themes appear dominant: the refusal of our
society to face death honestly, and the scarcity of reliable
information and systematic study on death.
In l972 Robert Kastenbaum was lamenting the situation when

he stated, "No topic in psychology has been more neglected through

 

the years..."2

Interest in helping professionals' awareness of
death, exists in the medical literature. Kubler-Ross, Quint, Cook,
Kastenbaum, Kalist maintain that medical professionals avoid and
deny death.3 However, in the literature of other helping profes-
sionals the studies are very scarce and in some disciplines are non-
existent. In l967 Earl Grollman discovered the lack of awareness
among educational psychologists on university faculties about death
as a serious subject for study by teachers.4 No studies were
located on the attitudes or awareness of teachers toward death.

So questions arise. Do helping professionals such as
teachers reflect the society in which they work? Would this mean
helping professionals who work with young people are avoiding and/or
denying death? Would the avoidance of death be helpful or harmful
for young peoples' development? If not avoidance, how does one
handle the topic and the feelings of a child in a sensitive manner
so the child gains from the encounter? And then, how does the pro-
fessional handle her/his feelings? It is difficult to give guidance
and support to young people if the adult's feelings are in turmoil.
What type of guidance and support is necessary for young people?

Has any research been done specifically with professionals who spend
large amounts of time interacting with young people? So many ques-
tions surface but few answers are available for helping professionals.

If the educational psychologists, those helping professionals
who are trained specifically in focusing on young peoples' learning
and behavior in the educational setting, are not aware of the

relevance of death as a serious topic for the attention of

 

teachers, questions quickly surface centering on classroom teachers.
Are classroom teachers aware of death as a relevant topic for study
by their students? Do teachers have a professional need for aware-
ness of this aspect of their students' lives? Are teachers know-
ledgeable about the happenings concerning death in the lives of
their students? What effect, if any, does death have on the lives
of students and teachers within the school environment? Does
experiencing death change behavior? What behavior signals the
teacher for closer observation of the young person?

Whether there is awareness, lack of awareness or some degree
of awareness between these two extremes, one fact remains constant
for the teacher and the student. Each student is spending a sig-
nificant amount of time under the influence of teachers. Classroom
teachers, particularly elementary teachers, often spend as much time
with their students as do the parents of these youth. A teacher's
opportunity for influence with young persons is awesome. Therefore,
a teacher's attitude toward death, a teacher's skill in observing
the effect of death on students, a teacher's decision to follow
through, or not follow through on the observations and the teacher's
sensitivity in executing the follow through, has the potential for
great effect on young persons' lives. Surely, then, teachers'
attitudes toward such a universal experience as death bear closer
scrutiny.

The absence of attitudinal studies centered on teachers as
helping professionals in death education, causes one to ask: Are

teachers aware of the experiences with death encountered by their

students? If teachers are aware, do they act, or not act, upon this
awareness when interacting with their students and other adults

in the school community? Is this awareness used when teachers deve-
lop and plan curriculum? And lastly, are there differences in
awareness, and the use of awareness, among teachers of different

age groups?

The Problem

 

Too little is known about teacher awareness of student death
experiences, and the use of this awareness. Therefore, an explora-
tory study needs to be conducted in which the following questions
are explored: Are teachers aware of their students' experiences
with death? If they are aware, do teachers use this awareness within
the school community? Further, are there differences in the aware-
ness, and the use of this awareness, between teachers of children
and teachers of adolescents? In order to answer these questions a
population was defined, a sample selected, and a methodology

developed.

Significance of the Problem
If death is important in young people's learning and develop-
ment, then, the integration of young persons' death experiences into
their school lives becomes equally important. It follows that
professionals working with young people would need similar oppor-
tunities for exploring the role of death in their development.
Consequently, the issue has broad implications for curriculum

development in a pre-school through twelfth grade school setting

 

as well as for the preparation of teachers in a university/college
setting.

If the present study reveals there is little or no awareness
by teachers of the part death plays in their students' school lives,
it would leave teachers unaware in other significant areas such as:
understanding the behavior of their students in relationship to
death, helping their students understand and learn about a universal
conCept which directly affects their lives, giving necessary support
for the healthy development of the young people in their classrooms
and for a healthy school community. In the event teachers are aware,
then the transformation of this awareness, and the manner in which
it is transformed, becomes of primary importance to students and
teachers. The quality of the process used by teachers in their
interactions with students, their planning of curriculum and their
decisions about integrating, or not integrating, death into their
students' lives becomes very significant in the growth of young
people.

The results of the study will raise crucial questions. Will
a teachers's lack of awareness in the death experiences of her/his
students have consequences for her/his teaching, for the learning
atmosphere in her/his classroom and building, for her/his relation-
ships with her/his students and school community, for her/his
students' development, and for the teacher's professional develop-
ment? Where does the aware teacher receive support for herself/himself
while helping students deal with death? Where can the teacher

develop skills in observation, interaction, values clarification, and

curriculum planning? What opportunities are available for a teacher
in gaining more knowledge and understanding of herself-himself, and
her/his students, in relationship to death? And finally, how do
teachers with different degrees of awareness and different levels of
usage of their students' death experiences co-exist and learn from

each other?

The Population and Setting

 

The decision for conducting the research within the context
of Michigan State University was made for two reasons. First, a
university setting would provide a heterogeneous population. The
teachers would have varied family backgrounds in culture, geographi-
cal locations, race, religions and socio-economic status as would
the children taught by these teachers. Further, the teachers in
the university summer setting would be in a less pressured situation
of time for self and time for reflection than a salaried teaching
setting would provide.

The specific university identified for the research was
chosen because of characteristics which held special relevance to
the research being conducted. The teachers were employed by
schools which served children from varied backgrounds. Selection
of teachers from a heterogeneous group of this description reduced
the chance to have data from a homogeneous group of children. Finally,
but not least important, is the fact that the researcher was
acquainted with the setting and instructors which facilitated
entry into the classes for the request of volunteers for the inter-

views.

—I—A%_____¥

Methodology

 

An interview focusing upon the teachers' experiences with
childrens' encounters of death within the past teaching year was the
method selected for the collection of data. In choosing this method,
the skills of teachers in observing young people were considered a
foundation for the interviews. An interview guide was developed to

provide a framework for the collection of data.

Definition of Terms

 

The terms of interest, as used in the exploratory questions,
are defined as follows:

student's death experience - a death, non-human or human, which

 

the student has encountered within the past school year as reported
by her/his teacher in the interview.

teacher's awareness of the student's death experience - the teacher

 

reports the death experience of a student and/or describes the
student's response, if any, to the death experience in her/his
observations during the interview.

teacher's use of awareness - the teacher's description of her/his

 

behavior, if any, in response to the student's behavior surrounding

the death experience as reported in the interview.

Limitations

 

Certain limitations were inherent within the design of the
research. The findings of this study cannot be generalized beyond
the sample studied. The thirty-six teachers who were subjects for

the study were graduate students attending Michigan State University.

 

 

No other group was interviewed. As an exploratory study, it was not
the intent of the author to make generalizations for a large popu-
lation. Rather, the interest was primarily to identify issues for
other exploration.

Demographic information related to age, amount of teaching
experience, and teaching localities of the respondents were not
obtained. A balance of teachers of children (children defined as
4 - ll years) and teachers of adolescents (adolescents defined as
12 - l8 years) was obtained. Lastly, the interviews were conducted
by the author herself. The author was the sole interpreter of the

data as well.

Summar

In this chapter, the background to the present research was
discussed, and the specific problem to be addressed by the research
was defined: Are teachers aware of the experiences with death
encountered by their students? And if so, do teachers use this
awareness in their teaching and interactions with others in the
school environment? Finally, are there differences in awareness,
and the use of awareness, between teachers of children and teachers
of adolescents? The selection of the university setting for the
research was discussed and the specific university population
chosen for the research was described. The methodology chosen was
identified; an interview conducted by the researcher utilizing an
interview guide for the gathering of data. The questions in the
research were specified and then the limitations of the research were

noted.

 

     

 

 

10

In the following chapter, the literature and research perti-
nent to the present investigation are examined in detail. In Chapter
Three, a more detailed discussion of the research setting and metho-
dology is given and is followed, in Chapter Four, by the reporting of
the data. A final chapter includes a summary, reflections on the
research, some final observations on the interviews and the recommenda-

tions for program development and research.

 

 

You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it

in the heart of life?...

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,
open your heart wide into the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river

and the sea are one.

Kahlil Gibran

ll

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

YOUNG PERSONS AND DEATH: A REVIEW OF
RELATED LITERATURE AND RESEARCH

Young persons learn about death."2 Certainly most author-
ities in the death and dying field would agree with this statement.
Consensus would not be so easily gained for other statements and
questions. For instance, young people need help in learning about
death. Who should help children in their learning about death?
Should teachers be included in the group of helping professionals?
Do teachers initiate the topic of death for discussion or do
teachers avoid this subject? Is it important for children to have
a basic concept of death? Do children mourn? If mourning is
possible for young persons, what are the consequences if they do not
mourn? Is there any relationship between the effects of death on
young people and the role of the teacher? Should death and its
ramifications be included as part of the curriculum?

Some of these questions have been given serious attention
since l940 when Sylvia Anthony confronted the taboo which had been
placed on the study of death: the development of a concept of death
3,4

and the need to mourn have been studied most seriously. Other

questions, only recently, have been considered, particularly those

 

 

 

13

queStions relating to schools, teachers and curriculum. From l959
to the present the literature on young persons and death has grown
steadily but the volume has been limited. There is a scarcity of
literature which relates young people, teachers, schools and death.
Most of the existing material has been done in relatively recent
times by professionals concerned with mental health such as
psychiatrists, psychologists and ministers.

In the review of the literature, attention is first given
to the historical development of society's attitudes toward death.
Next, consideration is focused upon the helping professionals'
attitudes toward death and lastly, attention is given to the needs
of young persons in relationship to death.

Historical Development of Society's
Attitudes Toward Death

Until we know what life is,
how can we know what death is?

Confucius

The curriculum of the public schools in the United States
is interrelated with the attitudes of the society in which the
school operates. Due to the importance of society's attitudes and
its relationship to the school, the writer investigated society's
past attitudes toward death as revealed by earlier studies. Primary
emphasis was placed on the studies done by United States' citizens

with the inclusion of some British studies.

 

 

 

14

Society's Attitudes Toward Death
From l899-l959

 

"Death has lost its terrors," wrote Joseph Jacobs in "The
Dying of Death" in 1899.5 Contrast Jacob's statement with the
following quotes from authors of recent death literature:
A study recently done by the National Institute of Mental
Health revealed that 80 percent of children's fears were
concerned with death.6
A 'psychology of death' is both premature and overdue.7
One of the most important facts is that dying nowadays
is more gruesome in many ways, namely more lonely, mechan—
ical, and 'dehumanized'; at times it is even difficult
to determine technically when time of death has occurred.8
Surely Robert Fulton's question in l970 "Is death dying in
the United States?" has different meanings completely than Jacob's
title, "The Dying of Death."9 Death is the new pornography; this
is a common statement by authors in the death and dying

f1.‘.,]d.1o,11,12,13

What has happened during the past 75 years to
bring the researchers and practitioners of today full circle since
1899?

In l9l5 Sigmund Freud in his essay, "Thoughts for the Times
on War and Death" wrote that death was natural and inescapable; yet
the behavior of people did not reflect this attitude. "We displayed
an unmistakable tendency to 'shelve' death, to eliminate it from

life. We tried to hush it up: .."14

Certainly people did not
speak of the death of another within hearing distance of that person.
Only children ignored this limit. Freud advised people to explore
their attitudes toward death since people were suppressing and

distorting their feelings toward death just as with sexuality.15

 

 

 

 

15

"Go to any public library and look under 'Death: Human' in the card
index, and you will be surprised to find how few books there are on
the subject” noted H.L. Mencken in 1919.16

From the early 1900's avoidance of the topic of death was
the prevalent attitude in society, but in l930 T.D. Eliot, an
explorer in the scientific study of human's relationship with death,
suggested social scientists might investigate the psychology of

death further.17

From this date a growing concern can be documented.
Agee's novel, A Death in the Family, published in 1938, brought the
topic to the literary world in a very realistic manner.18 Thirty-
four years later Edwin Shneidman states, "Agee brings out the fact
that the taboo of the word death is inculcated in people from child-
hood. Aunt Hannah and Mary explain the idea of death to Cathy and
Rufus in the most indirect terms."19
During the 1940's the treatment of death as a topic for

consideration appeared more acceptable to those people working with
children than those working with adults. Bro, Baruch and Gesell/Ilg
considered the subject of death important enough to include it as a

20’21’22 Bro's treatment of death is

section in their books.
religious in nature and Christian in particular. Nonetheless, she

is open to differences and her philosophy is based on sound develop-
mental principles for childrearing. You, Your Children, and War

by Baruch has an entire chapter devoted to "Talk of Killing." Gesell

and 119, not only have a short section on the development of the

concept of death in children, but also include in each age level a

 

 

 

 

L_____

16

category entitled, 'Philosophic outlook' which covers 'Death and
Life'. Interestingly enough, none of the three books mention death
as a taboo topic.

One of the most well known authors in the area of children's
conceptualization of death, Sylvia Anthony, published her disserta-
tion, "The Child's Discovery of Death" in 1940. In the introduction
Professor Fluegel mentioned aversion to the topic of death:

There is no corresponding literature on the psychology of

death--and this in spite of the fact that psychoanalysis

has shown that in many important respects our attitude

toward death is similar to that toward sex. Both subjects

are often unpleasant, inasmuch as they tend to arouse

anxiety...; we often react to both forms of unpleasure and

anxiety by the same devices of flight, repression, taboo

and symbolism (we talk of 3 'departed friend' as we talk

of a 'fallen' woman, ...)2
Fluegel continued then to congratulate Sylvia Anthony "on having had
the courage to overcome the resistances and taboos which have hither-
to surrounded this difficult and delicate subject--a courage compar-
able to that of the writers who braved the corresponding sexual
taboos a decade or two ago."

Two years after the end of World War II a diary of a young
girl who dared to live joyously in the face of death stirred the
hearts of the world. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl was made
into a film and a play as well.24 In l948 Evelyn Waugh described in
very graphic terms the funeral customs practiced in the United

25

States. The Loved One was a well discussed novel. The next year

 

John Gunther wrote Death Be Not Proud. This book was a poignant and

26

moving tribute to his son who died at the age of l7. So ten years

 

 

 

 

after Agee's sensitive treatment of death via the novel, the

literary world added three other works focused on death.

Undaunted by the scientific world‘s concern over the
resistance to the idea of death, Edith Hunter and Anna Wolf treated
the "untouchable" topic in different ways. Hunter, in The Questioning
Child and Religion (1956), devotes one chapter to "The Cycle of Life
and Death." "We wish to open all possible windows on the subject of
death. We do not wish to close our children off from all views

”27

except our own. Wolf wrote a pamphlet for the Child Study

Association entitled, Helping Your Child to Understand Death (1958).

 

She believes parents are unprepared for children's questions because
death is no longer a part of family life.28
And Charles Wahl, in 1958, thought people used magic a great
share of the time in facing death. "Firstly the word death is
itself taboo, instead cumbersome and elaborate euphemisms such as
'passed on' or 'departed' are employed.” It was his opinion that a
huge and extremely expensive industry existed for the sole reason
of protecting us from the realities of death. Then, too, most
people identify with a religious or philosophical system which
guarantees our immortality. ”We flee from the reality of our even—
tual death with such purpose and persistence and we employ defenses
so patently magical and regressive that these would be ludicrously
obvious to us if we should employ them to this degree in any other

area of human conflict."29

 

~—-‘_—-— ‘-—_..___

 

18

Would the coming years bring less magic and more acceptance
of death? The next section reviews the literature relevant to the
years from 1959 to the present.

Society's Attitudes Toward Death
From 1959 to the Present

A major work, The Meaning of Death, edited by Herman Feifel,
appeared in 1959 and this book acted as a catalyst to the literature
on death. If time span is considered, the articles dated from 1934
to 1958; however, most of the writings ranged in the late forties
or late fifties. Certainly the interdisciplinary nature of the
collection was its most striking feature. Art, English, anthropology,
psychiatry, religion, philosophy, and politics were a few of the
disciplines represented. Feifel identified three themes stressed
by contributors:

l. The outlook of the United States toward death is mainly
one of "denial and avoidance." This poses ramifications
for the individual and for society.

2. Our science-conscious culture tends to measure exper-
ience within the bounds of space and time and possibly
we are not provided "with all the necessary parameters
for investigating and understanding death.”

3. More trustworthy knowledge is urgently needed; more
planned, controlled study on the topic of death is a
necessity.30

This same year Thelma Fraiberg in The Magic Years considered the
topic of death of enough importance in child-rearing to include a
discussion of it in her book.31

There are two collections of children's writings which

reflect eloquently the feelings of children ”caught in World War II.“

 

19

, Children of the A—Bomb, edited by Arata Osada, Past President of

Hiroshima University, in 1959 is a testament of the boys and girls
I of Hiroshima who experienced the A—bomb. The following quotation
I is an example of a high school senior's comment:
: ...Science--what in the world is this science? Such an

atom bomb is undoubtedly a crystal of scientific progress.

I But can it really be said that a thing which takes several
l hundred thousand human lives at one time is true
I scientific development.32
1
I

An undated book ...I Never Saw Another Butterfly... is another

 

powerful, heart-wrenching collection of children's drawings and
1 poems from Terezin Concentration Camp during the years 1942—1944.
I Out of 15,000 children under the age of 15 who passed through
( Terezin, 100 exited alive. Eva Pickova, 12 years old, left this
: poem:
FEAR

Today the ghetto knows a different fear,
Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe.
An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake.
The victims of its shadow weep and writhe.

9 Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright
and mothers bend their heads in their hands.
Now children choke and die with typhus here,
A bitter tax is taken from their bands.

My heart still beats inside my breast
While friends depart for other worlds.
Perhaps it's better - who can say?
Than watching this, to die today?

No, no, my God, we want to live!

Not watch our numbers melt away.

We want to have a better world, 33
We want to work - we must not die!

L______E

 

20

By 1965 there were still less than 400 entries in R.A.

Kalish's bibliography entitled, "Death and Bereavement," published

in the Journal of Human Relations.34

a study, Death, Grief, and Mourning, in which he concluded that
English society did not give support for the process of mourning.
He also noted the entwinement of sex and death as so many other
authors had.

In 1955, I had put into words my awareness that death had

superceded sex as a taboo subject and one surrounded with

a morbid and furtive fascination for many people, according

to the evidence of the horror comic and the 'X' film; I

called my essay 'The Pornography of Death'.35

In Death and Identity Fulton's view of the research was a

much more positive one that that of most other writers in 1965. He
thought researchin this area had “burgeoned” in the United States
since the publication of The Meaning of Death by Feifel in 1959.

Although Feifel could, in truth, state six years ago that

we possessed little systematic knowledge about attitudes

or reactions toward death, and that not enough attention

had been paid to the implications of the meaning of death

in this country, the situation was now changed perceptibly.

Research into grief and bereavement, studies of attitudes

toward death, and recorded responses to death and dying

have begun to appear in increasing plentitude in the social

and medical science literature.36

Interestingly enough, in 1965 Wolfenstein and Kliman, the

editors of Children and the Death of a President, made no mention

 

of "the avoidance of death" pattern by society except as a natural
part of the review of literature when Feifel and Gorer are cited.
The editors did touch, however, on the fact that the death of
President Kennedy had been very shocking and distressing to them.

It was difficult for them not to feel uneasy pursuing the study of

 

In 1965 Geoffrey Gorer completed

21

37

a death so close to all of them. This same year Edgar Jackson,

a Protestant minister, wrote a slim but practical volume entitled
Telling Your Child About Death.38
After Sylvia Anthony's dissertation, "The Child's Discovery
of Death" in 1940, there was no major work relating children and
death until 1967. Rabbi Earl Grollman was the editor of Explaining
Death to Children; the book was a compilation of articles from
various disciplines of psychology, children's literature, psychiatry,
anthropology, biology, sociology and religion. Louise Ames, who
wrote the introduction for the book, stated:
We seem to be trying to put death and the thought of death
into the background if not denying it entirely. .A
significant and demanding theme which runs through the whole
presentation is that if we as individuals and as a society
could ourselves come to terms with death, we could do a
better job in telling our children about it.39
Grollman said, ”One of the reasons why many persons reject the aged
is that they remind them of death. Discussion about death is relegated
to a tabooed area formerly reserved for sex and dread diseases like
cancer."40
Mothers and Daughters by Edith Neisser came off the press
the same year as Grollman's book. One chapter of the book was
devoted to death; "What the Death of a Mother Means to Her Daughter.”
She thinks this particular event is even more difficult for those
involved because our society copes so poorly with death and the
accompanying grief.41
Joseph Rheingold, in 1967, trod on two taboos; he wrote on

death and maternal destructiveness. In The Mother, Anxiety, and

 

 

22

anth, Rheingold maintained that "The taboo of maternal destructive—
ness is more fundamental and more difficult to overcome than the
taboo of death.42
In 1969 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, an experienced psychiatrist,
wrote On Death and Dying; this is the book which opened the emotional
dam in the area of death and dying in the United States. In the
book she tells of the wall of resistance erected by the professional
medical staff when she requested interviews with terminally ill
patients. Some reacted with "stunned looks of disbelief” while
others changed the topic of conversation suddenly. The staff made
certain she never came near a dying patient. Some doctors protected
patients with weak excuses such as the patients were too sick or too
weak or too tired or did not want to talk. Others directly told her
they would have nothing to do with the study while others said they
would think about it. Nurses became angry with Kubler-Ross and
walked away from her so they would not be forced to respond to her.43
As the well-known psychiatrist has said, “The more we are making
advancements in science, the more we seem to fear and deny the
reality of death.“44
The year 1969 was a very prolific one for literature on the
topic of death. Still another book that year, Up From Grief, by
Kreis touched on a more personal level. She believes that the
great share of people are not prepared for death for themselves or
their friends or family members.45 During the same year Austin

Kutscher edited But Not to Lose: A Book of Comfort for Those Bereaved.

 

23

He does not mention that death is not a topic for discussion; per-
haps this is because his interest in death came as a result of
experiencing his wife's death. In the prologue he calls the book
”a labor of love."

I still live in the same house. Many of the same birds,

the wood ducks and the swan, are still in your back yard.

Many of the relics that Jane and I collected in our

travels are about our house. But there are no ghosts.

Memories that for a time were inexpressibly sad have

once again become a source of deep pleasure and

satisfaction.46

Nicholas Tucker, a British developmental psychologist, wrote

two articles touching on the death theme. In the 1969 article,
”Why Nursery Rhymes?" there is a section entitled 'No Taboo on
Death'. “Death, so often ignored as a theme in children's litera-

47 In "Books that

ture, occurs frequently in nursery rhymes.”
Frighten" Tucker mentions that rhymes including death have been
eliminated from anthologies while others have been rewritten.

In 1970, Elizabeth Reed's Helpinnghildren with the Mystery
of Death was followed one year later by Sylvia Anthony's reworking
of her 1940 material; ”repeating and adding to earlier observations,
relating them to later researches in kindred fields, placing the

”48’49 In the

whole in the sort of setting such a subject deserves.
introduction to this new book, The Discovery of Death in Childhood
and After, Anthony reviews the death taboo and identifies the later
1950's as the time the taboo began to lift generally. She devotes
more attention to the topic of the development of the concept of

death in children and the lack of study done since her 1940 work.

 

 

24

From her perspective the taboo is lifted with Herman Feifel's book
in 1959.

...the psychological problems of the profession itself in

this context were treated with frankness and perspective,

and the inclusion of an eminent psychologist among the

contributors, by recognizing the involvement of workers

in other disciplines, came like a breath of fresh air.50

In the journal Young Children in August 1972 an article,

"A Matter of Life and Death” by Harlene Galen suggests practical
guidelines for teachers in handling the subject of death with young
children. These guidelines were a result of the discovery that a
nursery school staff desired “reassurance of the validity of coping

with this subject in the preschool."51

The shunning of death was
discovered when photographs of the pupil's participation in ”playing
dead” were consistently blurry or poorly composed as compared to the
other well—composed and sharply focused photographs. Discussion
with the staff revealed this was not due to chance. The teachers
felt very ambivalent about including the subject of death--even
"playing dead"--in the early childhood curriculum.52
And in 1972, Robert Kastenbaum was writing that the topic

of death in psychology had been neglected.

No topic in psychology has been more neglected through

the years--yet one might contend that psychology originated

in thoughts about death.... We are struck by how little

our own field, psychology, has contributed to the under-

standing of death in proportion to its more general

contributions to human knowledge.

Kastenbaum suggests in his book, The Psychology of Death, that mental

 

health specialists are attempting to decontaminate the topic of

death. He gives credit to Feifel for recognizing that "there could

 

25

be no really useful psychology of death until people, including
his own colleagues, were willing to accept this topic as relevant
and legitimate.54

Dumont and Foss in 1972 added to the lament over the scarcity
of research concerning the understanding of people's attitudes toward
death. "Despite the obvious importance of understanding people's
attitudes toward death, empirical research in the area is not as yet
very extensive. In fact, the social sciences have only recently

ventured into death research."55

This book also was an attempt to
bridge the "denial vs. acceptance of death argument.” Dumont and
Foss thought people accepted and denied death simultaneously; there
was no one view then, butviews of varying degrees of denial or
acceptance.
John Langone, in 1972, wrote,
...But first, one must be willing to approach the subjects
of death and dying in a way that removes them from the
grave, as one would approach any topic of study. Death is
a noun, and it and dying are very much a part of the story
of life. It behooves us to read the story in its entirety.56
The same year Robert Kavanaugh, a former priest and present
counselor and university teacher, wrote about the relationship of
death and pornography.
Writing this book has not been easy. Friends hear you are
writing, inquire avidly about the subject, then gulp and
look away when you tell them. No wonder death is now
known as the new pornography and Americans as the new
Victorians of prudery about death. Some days I feel like

the teller of bawdy jokes in a girl scout camp or convent
parlor.57

LII‘ DE

 

26

Avery Weisman agreed with Kavanaugh that the majority of adults
cannot confront death or even accept death. "Death is not real; yet
it is constantly around us."58
Despite this tendency, death, as a subject for study, is
becoming of more interest to the general public. A monthly magazine
of national standing found half again as many respondents to a poll

on death as to a poll on sex.59

Shneider reported a similar
experience. Even so, the same year Milton Mayer commented in If Men
Were Angels, “The paper-thin bibliography of the subject (death) is
eloquent testimony to the invincibility of our ignorance."60
A medical journalist, David Hendin, reports that the bibli-
ography is not so thin for the specialist. He notes
that it has been only in the past few years that physicians
and even theologians have had courses on death and dying
available in their professional training. Even today
such courses are conspicuously absent at most of the
nation's medical schools.51
Yet still in 1972 Talcott Parsons, Renee Fox and Victor Lidz
noted in an article, "The Gift of Life," which appeared in the book,

Death in the American Experience, the concern of both medical and

 

secular groups with the different aspects of death and dying. Parsons

felt that both medical students and physicians had an increased
interest in the topic; the literature was growing rapidly.62

Neale's, The Art of Dying, was one of the first attempts to
go beyond a "strictly reading approach" to death education.

The purposes of these exercises is to facilitate our own
movement from death to life. ..., we will explore our
awareness of death in the midst of life and our fear of
death and life.63

27

A year later in 1973, Marya Mannes said,
Many brave and eloquent men have looked death squarely in
the face. 'My bags are packed,‘ said Pope John XXIII in
1965. 'I am ready to go.’ But now the open dialogue of
death is far more pragmatic than poetic because machines
control the time and definition of death.64
Sarah Cook, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Columbia
University, added a slim book, Children and Dying, to the death
literature in 1973. She noted that most of the articles and books
relating children and death speak of the importance and difficulty
of the subject along with the scarcity of material. She contends,
however, that once the research process is underway the "articles
seem endless."
It is as if each author must go through a long, researching
process of his own in order to arrive at some opinion about
the subject. Closer perusal of the material does indicate
that there is a paucity of new material on the subject, and
that many 'new' articles (as this one) are a recombination
and republication with editing of past work. ...The
earliest evidences of work in this area do not appear
until the 1930's and early l940's, and then there is an
absence of material until the late 1950's and early 1960's,
when an explosion of material occurs.55
When Qgestions and Answers on Death and Dyipg was published

66 This

in 1974, Kubler-Ross had dropped "the avoidance of death."
particular year, 1974, reputable writers added significantly to the
literature on death and dying; Kubler-Ross, Aries, Grollman, Lifton,
Keleman and Zeligs are a few. The tone and attitude toward death
is very different for the most part. The extensive quotes give a

flavor of the change, along with some sense of the consistency of

their messages.

28

Aries was "convinced by his research that it was indeed the

culture of the United States which has played the primordial role in

changing Western attitudes toward death in the twentieth century."67

He also gives a concise review of the death and dying scene:

During the last ten years in American publications an
increasing number of sociologists and psychologists have
been studying the conditions of death in contemporary society
and especially in hospitals. (A bibliography of 340 recent
works is to be found in 0.G. Brim et al., The D in Patient
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1970.) This bibliography
makes no mention of the current conditions of funerals and
mourning. They are deemed satisfactory. On the other hand,
the authors have been struck by the manner of dying, by the
inhumanity, the cruelty of solitary death in hospitals and
in a society where the interdiction of death paralyzes and
inhibits the reactions of the medical staff and family
involved. ...And this para-medical literature, for which,
as far as I know, there is no equivalent in Europe, is
bringing death back into the dialogue from which it had
been excluded. Death is once again becoming something
one can talk about....68

Contrast this with Feifel in 1959 when he spoke of Western
culture in quite a different tone:

In the presence of death, Western culture, by and large,
has tended to run, hide, and seek refuge in group norms
and actuarial statistics. The individual face of death
has become blurred by embarrassed incuriosity and insti-
tutionalization. The shadows have begun to dwarf the
substance. Concern about death has been relegated to the
tabooed territory heretofore occupied by diseases like
tuberculosis and cancer and the topic of sex. We have
been compelled in unhealthy measure, to internalize our
thoughts and feelings, fear, and even hopes concerning
death.59

Lifton, a psychiatrist, refers in Living and Dying to the
unavoidable pressures which society exerts on people.

Historical struggles strongly influence the subjects
psychologists choose for study. In our time, massive
violence and absurd death have made this century one of
horror for millions of people. Death has become
unmanageable for our culture, and for us as individuals...

29

What is needed now, we believe, is an approach to death
that is both sensitive to personal exgerience and respon-
sible to broader currents of thought. 0

Keleman, Lifton and Aries sound more positive about increasing

71

concern with death and its aspects. Grollman's book in 1974,

Concerning Deat , concentrates on the avoidance theme at great
length.

And yet, the subject of death is the most significant taboo
of our society. There is a vast conspiracy involved in
hushing up the new four-letter word of pornography. D-E—A-D.
Death has become the forbidden topic, replacing sex as an
object of repression....

Death is not only camouflaged; it is avoided. For
many, the theme is an obscenity not to be discussed or
even mentioned. There is a superstitious belief that if
it is not talked about, it will simply disappear. Death
itself will 'pass away'. It is what some social scientists
call 'The dying of death'.

Despite Grollman's negative view of the situation, the Journal
of Clinical Child Psychology in the summer of 1974 devoted an entire

issue to "Death and Children."73

Feifel, Kastenbaum, Maurer,
Kubler-Ross, Lifton, and Leviton are but a few of the outstanding
contributors to that particular issue. And the May-June 1975 issue
of Children Today concentrated on "Child Abuse” as the central theme;
since the fear of death is one of the main issues of child abuse this
topic seems very relevant to the subject of death and children.
Perhaps if death can be put in perspective by society, it will be
easier to put life into an equal place with death and related issues
such as child abuse.74

By 1976 professionals sounded more certain about their views

on death. Eda LeShan, an educator, writer and family counselor

3O

opened the introduction to her book with firmness on her stand
about children and death.

Some people may find this book shocking. There are those

who believe that children should be 'protected' from talk

about death and dying, that painful experiences which are

not discussed will just go away and be forgotten. This is

wrong. We now know that this is just a temporary masking

of feelings which can be very hurtful to us all through

our lives. What I have learned from many years of working

with children and their families and from my own experience

is that the most important part of living through a terrible

experience is to understand and accept your feelings.75

Although society has avoided and denied death since the

beginning of this century, the past ten years indicate a growing
concern which is evidenced by an explosion of literature in the
death and dying field. How will this change of attitude filter
from the research arena to the individual supporting those exper-
iencing death with all its ramifications? Do the attitudes of the
helping professionals, who hold the responsibility for disseminating

the change of attitude, differ from society in general?

Attitudes of Helping Professionals
Toward Death

Teacher, teacher,
Will I die?

Yes, my child,
And so will 1!

Anonymous childhood chant

31

Once upon a time a patient died and went to heaven,
but was not certain where he was. Puzzled, he asked
a nurse who was standing nearby: "Nurse, am I dead?"
The answer she gave him was: "Have you asked your
doctor?"

Anonymous, circa 1964.

Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss
Awareness of Dying

 

"Even for professional men and women euthanasia and death
remain an almost taboo subject--just as sex was once taboo," states
Dr. Florence Clothier, a former faculty person in psychiatry at

76

Harvard Medical School. Herman Feifel comments,

Some colleagues and I are now engaged in scrutinizing

these attitudes in students entering areas where coming to

grips with dying, death and bereavement is an essential

feature of their professional functioning, i.e., the

ministry, medicine, nursing, and funeral directing. 7

Since it is the professional group which sets policy for our

institutions, it is interesting to note that Trubo and Shneidman both
mention the unhealthy state of our institutions in relationship to
the topic of death and dying. Shneidman speaks of the dehumanization
of our society and the urgent need to reverse our present national
death-oriented course. "But in order to avert the death of our own
institutions we shall, in addition to being the home of the brave
and the land of the free, have to become the country of the

78 Trubo is more direct than Shneidman. "How, in fact, do

humane."
you convince people to confront their own dying and death when many
of our major institutions--from health agencies to hospitals to
religious groups--encourage us to deal so unrealistically with

death."79

32

Attitudes of Medical Professionals
Toward Death

 

Seventy-five percent of all deaths will occur in crowded
hospitals or homes for the aged where the goal is to improve the

health of the patient.80

If a terminal illness interrupts this goal,
then the objective is to keep the patient quiet and comfortable to
the end. In meeting this objective most health personnel use drugs
because of their limited knowledge.81 Kavanaugh states: "The plain
facts of the matter are clear; staff peoples such as doctors and
nurses receive no rewards for responding in a human way to dying
patients."82

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross verifies by her personal experience,
both in her workshops and writings, that nurses and doctors avoid
death and the dying patient.83 Certainly the title of her book tells
her message; On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to Teach

Doctors, Nurses, Clergy and Their Own Families. She has explained

 

with very poignant and often dramatic observations that doctors,
nurses and all other professionals in human services, as well as lay
people, have much to learn about death.

Most likely, nurses, as a group, have had the most exper-
iences with death and dying; nonetheless, they tend to deny death
and conceal it from others. Richard Kalish concludes from a study
"...the nurses, although not the observer, were startled to learn

"84

how much they delayed answering the ring of the dying. In Ihg_

_E§ychology of Death, Kastenbaum reports a study which he made while

 

working with nurses in a hospital setting.

33

The nurse is likely to be a person with at least average,
often above average, compassion for the ill and suffering.
While some nurses, as some physicians, manage to insulate
themselves from the emotional implications of their work,
it is more typical for the nurse to care about what her
patients are going through. Yet it is also typical for the
nurse to believe that she should not 'give in' to her
feelings even to the extent of '1etting them show' to
others.86

In The Nurse and the Dying Patient, Jeanne Quint maintained

the nurse's goals are not consistent. She is told "to keep the
patient alive at all costs" but at the same time she is “to help
him die in a dignified and comforted manner." There is little
importance placed on conversation as an important content area for
nurses' training. While the technical aspects of nursing care are

given in most explicit ways, there is little specialized direction

in the use of conversation in the best interest of patients.86

Kastenbaum found Quint's observations were consistent with
his findings. He concluded:

We arrive at a general view of the nurse as a person who
must cope with the daily challenges and demands of the
death situation--yet lacking the authoritative leverage
of the physician, lacking relevant training from her own
profession, and lacking on-the-job atmosphere that would
support her in times of personal distress or in her more
adventuresome and involved efforts. It is no wonder that
she may lean heavily upon unexamined cultural values and
attitudes. Nor should we be hasty in asking her to
function within the vicinity of the terminal patient.

As with the funeral director and physician, we sent the
nurse forward with conflicting orders ringing in her
ears. We are not sure precisely what we want her to do
with death except, somehow, to keep it out of sight.

In Greenberg's and Irwin's study with medical personnel, they

interviewed all first year residents and all nurses between 20 and

30 at a cancer research center about their attitudes toward work and

 

34

88 It was common for the nurses to

their attitudes toward death.
respond in a psycho-social manner by withdrawal and isolation, but
very often they sought relief by talking with roommates or parents
via long distance. Half of the nurses servicing cancer patients
left by the end of the year, whereas one-fourth of the nurses left
the cardiac and psychiatric services. There were no nurses who
would discuss death with the patient or deal with the patient's
feelings. Questions from patients were fielded to the doctors.
However, there was no discussion of the questions among the clinical
personnel.
Sarah Sheets Cook, a nurse and author, suggests

The core of the problem of dealing with childrens' percep-

tions of death and with dying children seems mainly that

nurses are human beings, living in a society where death

is a hateful and distressing experience and working in a

profession which regards death as an enemy.89
Glaser and Strauss have a similar view:

...Nurses import into the hospital the values of our

society and act accordingly...what surely can be done is

to become deliberately aware of the importation so that

responses to social loss will not hinder professional

requirements for composure and care.90

The person who should know more about dying and death than

any other is the doctor, since he spends a good share of his life
with people who have death and/or pain as a companion. August Kasper
does not think the medical profession supports this thesis, however.

I am not impressed with either the volume or profundity of

medical thought concerning death or dying people. It is as

if this one certainty of life were to be avoided not only

by vigorous positive thought and action, but also by giving

it, as an event, no more attention than one gives to a
period at the end of a moving impressive novel.9

 

35

Hennan Feifel interviewed 81 physicians and two control
groups, one of healthy normal persons and one of seriously ill
patients. He contended from the results that physicians tended to
have an above-average fear of death. Further, he also found “the
implication that a number of physicians utilize the medical profes—
sion so the individual can secure prominent mastery over disease, to

92 A personal accident,

help control personal concerns about death."
illness, or threat of death before the age of five was the major
reason given for these fears.

Livingston and Zimet, a physician and a psychologist,
studied physician's orientations toward death. The medical students
studied were specializing in surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics
and psychiatry. The results of the questionnaire showed those
students who scored high in authoritarianism expressed little
death—anxiety while death-anxiety increased as the students moved

93 Both Feifel and Gorer

from the academic to the clinical setting.
report that physicians think of themselves as different from patients
if terminal illness is the consideration. Even though physicians
want the truth, they do not feel their patients want the truth about
terminal illness.94
Kubler-Ross and Feifel have told their personal experiences
with physicians while researching in the field of death and dying.
Both of these well-known figures in the death literature discovered

invisible walls when searching for research settings and population

samples. Kubler-Ross said: "Early in my work with dying patients

 

36

I observed the desperate need of the hospital staff to deny the

d."95

existence of terminally ill patients on their war Herman

Feifel reported:

...After a few more vetoes in various setups, I began to
realize that what I was up against were not personal quirks,
the usual administrative vicissitudes, non-acceptance of

an inadequate research design, or the pique aimed at an
'outsider' coming in to ruffle smooth waters. Rather, it
was a personal position, bolstered by cultural structuring
that death is a dark symbol not to be stirred or touched,
that it is an obscenity to be avoided.96

 

The most important factor in working with dying patients
according to Kubler-Ross is "our own attitude and ability to face
terminal illness and death." Certainly it would be impossible to
face death calmly and helpfully with a patient if death is seen as a
taboo topic which conjures fear. She continues:

...I am convinced, from the many patients with whom I have
spoken about this matter, that those doctors who need denial
themselves will find it in their patients and that those
who can talk about the terminal illness will find their
patients better able to face and acknowledge it. The need
of denial is in direct proportion with the doctor's need
for denial.9

Marya Mannes in Last Rights comments about the superiority
of our medical equipment, research facilities and technical know-
how.

But no machine can tell them (the physicians) what to say
to a dying patient and ease him truthfully but gently into
death. It is this worry, this call for help in the night
or day, that the '1ower echelons' in the treatment
hierarchy of the critically ill are now trying to answer.98

"Over-involvement" is used as a warning often with newcomers
to the medical professions. Kastenbaum, however, maintains "under-

in-volvement” is at least as grave a danger. He feels many of our

 

37

destructive attitudes in this shunning of death stem from the
failure to identify with other humans. "Death tends to level the
distinctions between specialist and everybody else....”99
Have the mental health specialists accepted these ”destruc-
tive attitudes?” The next section reviews the literature focusing
on the mental health professional.
Attitudes of Mental Health
Professions Toward Death
As natural as the inclusion might appear, Kastenbaum suggests
"conspicuous by his absence” as an accurate description of the
mental health specialist's role in our culture's death system.100
Certainly the mental health system has expanded greatly in the
United States, but there has been no noticeable attention given to
death and topics related to death. Even courses for these specialists
have not included the topic of death in their content. A year's
course in developmental psychology, or even a four year graduate
program might not include the relationship between growth and death.
A clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist is not apt to enter
her/his profession with an adequate knowledge or a sense of involve-
ment in death-related questions Kastenbaum maintains.]01
Like Kubler-Ross, Feifel suggests those in the mental health
professions must resolve their own fears and concerns about death
before they can be helpful and supportive with others confronting

death.]02

In fact, Feifel goes much beyond the professional neces-
sity for psychological comfort with death. He thinks findings

suggest that a person's philosophy of life and death lie at the

 

38

heart of meaning, value and personality. The manner in which a
person views death may be a major organizing principle in determining

how we behave. "If, in truth, 'the child is father to the man,‘

.what greater challenge is there to the clinical child psychologist

than that the idea of death serve as preparation for living!”103
Feifel believes our schools should be considering “death education“;
his view is indicative of a new interest and a changing attitude
toward relating children and death within an educational framework.

Are teachers prepared for this new development?

Attitudes of Professional

Educators Toward Death

 

Earl Grollman commented on the lack of awareness among
university educators about death as a topic for serious consideration
for teachers in 1967.

The editor found the selection of an educational psychologist
the most difficult of all the contributors to obtain.

Numerous calls were made to university professors throughout
the country.

'How do you, in the school situation, handle youngsters
who have sustained a loss?'

The replies were almost the same: 'Frankly, we never
thought of it. I guess we leave it to the individual
teacher.’

But you give instruction for all the details of academic
life. You mean that there is no portion of your
curriculum to teachers regarding the crisis situation

of death?

The resounding response: 'Yes--we have avoided the
subject.I 4

 

39

In "Death: Handling the Subject and Affected Students in
the Schools," Hella Moller believes that the deep effect on a
child of the death of a parent is not often realized by school per-

105

sonnel. Most often there are not enough “professionals to detect

and treat all children who could benefit." (Moller obviously is not

 

including classroom teachers as professionals who could assess the
emotional needs of children; nor is she viewing the curriculum as a
possibility for exploration of expressing emotions.)
The issue of Young Children in August 1972 had an article
”A Matter of Life and Death" in which Harlene Galen comments on the
place of death within the life of the young child.
Death is not confined to the world of the adult. It has
a definite place in the world of the young child as well.
The vital importance of the early childhood educator's
acceptance of this fact and his associated professional
role cannot be stressed too greatly. If the teacher
ignores this fact he denies the child's full development
of a firm foundation for lifelong sound mental health.106
No studies have been found by the writer concerning edu-
cator's attitudes toward death. Some authors have written about
”death education"; criteria have been suggested for effective

teachers in death education.107

Leviton in 1974 states: "The pro—
liferation of death education courses with children and youth
obliges us to offer several recommendations." One of the three
recommendations is the training of teachers in death education.

It is interesting to note that most of the suggestions
directed toward teachers are not given by educators or professionals

who have worked with youth. With the exception of Eileen Forman,

a kindergarten teacher and Harlene Galen, a nursery school director,

 

40

those professionals setting criteria and recommendations are
educators at the university level, interested in working with adults

108 In the

or professionals in related fields such as mental health.
field of religion, Earl Grollman is an exception; he shares some of
his experiences in working with children. Educators are not

prominent in this current and, now more widely discussed, subject

of death.

Educators most often are missing members of the professional
groups included within the death education framework. When Kasten-
baum mentions the integration of the dimension of death into educa-
tional and training programs, he neglects teachers.

Future psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists and social
workers should, we think, be given opportunity to consider
death as it is relevant to their prospective life's work.
eiélfiimél'l‘eplli'é‘é 21f?223$?faiittéie”fiii§ig.iBis'c'a”s’
In his preface Kastenbaum does include teachers in a list of pro-
fessionals he hopes will read the book.

Leviton, in the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, men-
tions an article that "death education is taught by sociologists,
psychologists, health educators, psychiatrists, specialists in
English and language studies, literature, etc.” Although the title
of the article reads "Death Education for Children and Youth,” the
classroom teacher, the professional person who spends the most time
with children having ordinary needs, is excluded from those classified

as death educators.no

 

41

In the Project Headstart Rainbow series there is an
example of this type of exclusion from the mental health field in
the #12 pamphlet, Psychologist. One section is entitled, "Utiliza-
tion of Other than Professional Psychologists in a Psychological
Service Program."

Who are these 'other than accredited psychologists' who may
make a contribution to the Head Start program? They come
from various disciplines. For example, guidance counselors,
speech clinicians, special education teachers, psychology
majors at the master's level, child development and
rehabilitation specialists all may constitute resources
upon which to draw.111
The experienced classroom teacher is not included in this list.
Experience with children is not a prerequisite; academic require—
ments are given priority.

Another illustration of the exclusion of teachers from
death-related issues is evident in an article, "Why Most Physicians
Don't Get Involved in Child Abuse Cases and What to do About It.”
A child protection team for intervention in families embroiled in
the child abuse cycle is suggested. On this team Helfer would
include a community protective service worker, public health nurse,
pediatric specialist, psychologist, hospital social worker, lawyer

112 Like Kastenbaum,

and, occasionally a law enforcement person.
Helfer has not included the teacher as a professional concerned
with mental health and the protection of children. Yet the great
majority of children in the United States spend more time with
teachers than with any other persons other than parents.

In an article, "Developmental Consideration of the Nursery

School Experience,” Emma Plank speaks of the abdication by educators

42

in the area of emotional development of children within the nursery
school framework.
We as educators cannot abdicate this job, as we have done,
for instance, with our tendency to have people from other
professions rather than educators as consultants for our
nursery schools. We find the social worker, the child
psychiatrist, the psychologist-—all of them trying to help
teachers deal with their children, but we rarely find a
specially skilled educator invited as a consultant. The
nursery school teacher can easily confuse her role with that
of the admired clinician, forgetting that she has the
unique function of creating an intricate educational
environment, conducive to the growth of different children,
with differing needs—~and this includes cognitive learning.113
Are teachers abdicating their role in death education?

Numerous authors and investigators have addressed the
avoidance and denial of death by the professionals staffing human
service institutions in the United States. These investigations
include the following professionals: nurses, physicians, and mental
health personnel. Most authors agree that the professional's
attitude toward death is the instrumental factor in their supportive
ability for others when confronted with death or the topic of death.
Exploration into educator's attitudes toward death are non-existent.
The literature relevant to the particular needs of adolescents in
relationship to death is examined in the next section.

Particular Needs of Adolescents in
Relationship to Death

 

 

And it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me I don't give a damn

Next stop is Vietnam

And it's 5,6,7,8 open up the Pearly Gates
Well there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee we're all gonna die.

Recorded by Pete Seeger

 

43

Kastenbaum and Aisenberg support their thesis that a great
deal can be done to prevent premature death in The Psychology of
Dggth. In speaking of developmental limits and their influence
these authors state that the likelihood of being in an accident
increases appreciably during the adolescent years. Two studies are
cited "which show that in Massachusetts and Connecticut (during the

periods studied) the youngest drivers had the highest accident

ll114

rates. In 1965 there were 1,600 Americans killed and 60,000

injured in motorcycle accidents and "most of the fatalities are of

115

high school and college age." This is not unique to the United

States. "One of every 12 boys who gets a motorcycle at the age of

16 is killed or seriously injured by the time he is 19" in the United

Kingdom.116

Kastenbaum continues:

...several characteristics associated with adolescence

and early adulthood undoubtedly tend to predispose this group
to accidents. These include inexperience, poor judgment, the
need to rebel against authority and to test limits, the
desire to prove one's masculinity and competence--frequently
by risk-taking, and general emotional, and possibly physical,
immaturity. If we add to these the likelihood that young
people will use defective and unreliable equipment and
vehicles7 then the accident statistics are easier to under—
stand.

Thus, developmental level sets limits not only on physical
strength, size, stamina, ability to conceptualize, and
experience but it also indirectly influences opportunities
and ability to interact with others, and to be allowed to
function without supervision in potentially dangerous
situations. In short, it is a major, sometimes rather
arbitrary, determinant of when a society will germit the
individual to be exposed to certain dangers.H

44

But the attitude of society toward recklessness is not one
of discouragement; rather it is encouraged. Here is a father of a
dead football player talking:

I think you'd make a mistake banning football.... I think
these boys are entitled to play. I played for nine years,
and I couldn't tell my son not to and make it stick. It
isn't up to you to cushion the shocks. These kids can take
it. My boy did, and I'm proud of him. Don't blame foot-
ball. These things, I think, are predestined. There's

no shame in dying. It's how you die. If you die like a
man, there's nothing wrong with that....11

Two basic attitudes are reflected in this man's statement
Kastenbaum suggested. These are: (l) accidental death is unavoid-
able or predestined; (2) risking death, even unnecessarily, is
honorable since it shows masculinity. Kastenbaum and Aisenberg
state: "If it isn't up to the adults to protect the young, then who

is it up to. Reckless attitudes are helped by adults in our

society."120

Farnsworth, in the preface to Shneider's Death and the College
Student, speaks of adults from a different perspective.

If I were to simplify a very complex problem in a construc-
tive way, based on my experience over nearly four decades
of working with young people, I would say that the most
important force or influence preventing a distraught young
person (or anyone else) from trying to end his own life is
a warm, trusting, dependable relationship with someone

who cares deeply for his welfare and who can get across to
him that this concern is genuine.121

Sometimes the college psychiatrist or counselor becomes
the trusted adult for some students. If for some reason
this type of a relationship can not be formed within the
established framework, then a person, such as a teacher,

a boy or girl friend must be the trusted listener. There-
fore, Shneider believes each community needs a group of
persons 'who are aware of the depth, variety, power, and
subtlety of self-destructive wishes and preoccupations and

45

who are willing to save a life by responding when such a
crisis becomes apparent. Pastors, physicians, psychologists,
psychiatrists in many instances. In any case, such individ-
uals can do much to refer troubled gersons to whatever more
highly trained help is available.12

Let us return to the adolescent who is seeking the meaning

of life and death. Edgar Jackson remarks:

It is at this point that the insights of Viktor Frankl may

have special relevance. He would urge that persons seek

first an adequate meaning for life, and then all of the

other things will be added unto them. It would seem

essential then, that the teaching of children and young

people would be aimed at their need to find adequate

meaning for their own lives at the time they are obliged

to live them. ...For it is only by the process of

enlightened confrontation that the deep anxiety about life

and death can be resolved and the maturing individual can

achieve the self—understanding and the self-realization

that it is competent to face all there is of life, even

its mark of mortality.123

As the young person is forming his/her purposes and making

decisions it must dawn on him/her that all hopes, expectations,
ambitions require time for fruition. As a result, it becomes a
very difficult task to weave the concept of death into the fabric
of life. Many youth give much thought to this topic of death.
"...The adolescent's understanding of death will be shaped by his
own life experiences. 'Attitude' or 'viewpoint' is just as signifi—

124 He even

cant as basic mental ability” maintains Kastenbaum.
suggests the manner in which a person united the thought of death
with his personality when a youth could have long range consequences
for mastery of problems in his/her later life.

In "Understanding the Teenager's Response to Death,” Edgar

Jackson proposes that approaching death in an unrealistic fashion

can be a danger to young people since this period of their lives

 

46

faces them with such important tasks. There are three major
decisions: (1) to lay the foundations for a philosophy of life;

(2) the task of sexual adjustment leading to the choice of a life
partner; (3) choosing a vocation. Jackson maintains "It can be
shown that the person's attitude toward death may in many cases be a

significant factor in determining behavior in relation to these

major choices."125

Avery Weisman states "In short, to be responsible, man must

126

believe in his own death." Yet our society constantly denies

death so young people would find the developing of this responsi-
bility very difficult.

Stanley Keleman relates an encounter with death which
happened in his adolescent years.

I recall a friend of mine dying when we were both 17. He
died of cancer. I remember how the gang would all gather
together and make mass marches on the hospital ward, as
though our energy and determination would effect his cure.
I remember the enforced visiting hours, and the stupid
behavioral straight they put my friend in and that we put
ourselves in. Everybody knew he was dying. But they forced
him to eat hospital food, when all he wanted was a hot
pastrami sandwich, which we sneaked to him. I remember him
sneaking smokes too, because they weren't permitted. Dying
for him was the same rebellion against the prison of help—
lessness that was around him from his childhood on.

I remember then that Ed had lost his father two years
before his own dying—-a man he was deeply attached to.
He never mourned his father. He just became delinquent,
dropped out of school and haunted pool rooms. Nobody
made the connection. Ed's way of dying, congealing and
shrinking, with his unspoken resentments at feeling
fatherless, manifested as brave stoicism. And he died.

I remember all of us-—his friends, his brother, his
mother--brave1y living the pretense of his getting well.
I remember the jokes we made to cheer him up. The brave,
smiley stuff, then we would all agonize outside his room.

47

We shared the terrors of his fate but couldn't express our
fears. I have often wondered if my friend died thinking
we really didn't care or couldn't feel. Even as I tell
this story I begin to feel sad at not sharing his fear
with him and my fear with him. Maybe I am finally
ending something that has remained unended for 25 years.
We cared Ed. We cared but we were scared. We missed
you. We were frightened and angry. For me, there is
still an empty space.12
Shoor and Speed support Keleman's memory of the cause of
delinquency in his friend.
In a child or adolescent, the impact of a loved one's death
may result in a normal mourning process with resolution, or
an immediate pathological reaction, a delayed reaction
leading to psychiatric problems as an adult or delinquent
behavior. Surprisingly enough to many people, delinquency
may be a masking of the mourning process.128
Acting out behavior has been related often by authorities to
anti-social attitudes. These delinquent adolescents have been
labeled as "children who hate" and their behavior has been blamed
on hostility. However, after Shoor and Speed gave psychiatric con-
sultation to 14 adolescents from the ages of 14 to 17, they decided
hostility was not the reason for this behavior. The actions of the
young people had been so harsh as to bring in the legal system upon
them. A death of an immediate member of the family had preceded the
behavior, either immediate or delayed. Previously these young people
had fit within the normal expectations of their families and com—
munities. These adolescents could not express their grief after the
death in a manner acceptable to society so that anti-social behavior
resulted.129
Two of the consultations done by Shoor and Speed had bearing

on the research at hand. Martin and his mother were extremely close.

48

She was dying of cancer but Martin became ”callous” to her suffering.
As he said, "I couldn't cry.” Martin's behavior disintegrated; he
began to fail in school and burgularies of the houses in the neighbor—
hood began. Since he could not "cry” about his loss, he acted out
the tears instead. After Martin was helped to verbalize his sense
of loss and gain affection from other sources, his school work
improved and the delinquent behavior receded.130
The second consultation concerned Jeannie who had been
shielded from the facts when her father died. This overprotection
created anxiety and confusion for her. Jeannie had been happy and
well behaved as a young child. After her father's death she started
lying, stealing and running away and this continued from the age of
7 until 15. Now she started extreme sexual misconduct until her
mother brought her in to Juvenile Probation because she was ”beyond
control." Eventually Jeannie was helped to see the relationship
between her father's death and her delinquent behavior.]3]
Fulton writes:
It is the conclusion of Geoffrey Gorer, an English research
anthropologist, that certain expressions of adolescent van-
dalism may be a function of the refusal or the inability
of some youths to mourn. In a study of recently bereaved
individuals he found that in contemporary Britain there
was both an individual repudiation and a social denial of
grief and mourning-—a repudiation and denial which left
the survivor grievously alone and ill-equipped to cope with
the myriad of personal and social difficulties that attendant
upon a death.1 2
A number of children and adolescents who had lost a parent
came to Wolfenstein for help within a year of the death. She

reported that ”sad feelings were curtailed; there was little

49

weeping. Immersion in the activities of everyday life continued..."
However, as time went on the analysts realized the children and
adolescents were "denying the finality of the loss." These young
people still held the expectation at a conscious level that their
dead parents would return.

When these young people became aware that the parent would
not return, they reacted with panic and anger. A 15 year old girl
named Ruth remarked a few months after the death of her mother, "If
my mother were really dead, I would be all alone.... I would be
terribly scared." Sometimes Ruth would be distraught with “frus-
tration, rage and yearning; she would roll the sheets and blankets
into the shape of a human body and hug them."133

After the death of President Kennedy the essays written by
adolescents about their feelings about the assassination for the
study done by Wolfenstein were strong, emotionally expressive
documents.

Without them I would have underestimated the intensity of
emotional reaction of children in this age range. At the
same time they presented a challenging paradox. In our
experience, children of this age tend to show strong
inhibitions of affect when someone in their own family has
died. Yet they could feel and express outspoken grief for
the death of the President.134

Jackson, in his article "Understanding the Teenager's
Response,” states the following:

The teenager, filled with a new sense of the creative power
of life and the wonder of the future, shows his interest
in the subject by a quest for the spiritual, psychological,
and personal meanings of death. He is busily engaged in
welding his philosophy of life and needs to have a place

into which death will fit. The teenager who is most apt
to need special help is the one who cannot talk about death

 

 

 

50

when it occurs. He is probably indicating that he cannot
cope with the idea, and his philosophy of life is not big
enough to find a place for it.

 

 

The small amount of information on adolescents' needs in
relationship to death revealed an agreement by the authors on the
importance of the adolescent's attitude toward death. The major
needs of adolescents were two—fold; a trusted adult relationship
and a philosophy of life large enough to encompass death. An
adolescent's attitude toward death affects his mastery of problems
in later life, his behavior in relation to major developmental tasks
for this period of his life, and the manner of the mourning process
and its constructiveness or destructiveness in relationship to the
major developmental tasks. Would the needs of younger children in
relationship to death have any similarity to the needs of adolescents?
The literature relevant to this question is examined in the next
section.

Children and the Process of
Conceptualizing Death

 

 

Patrice and Heidi began a conversation about babies, as
apparently Patrice's Mom just had a baby. Mike informed
the children that he knew where babies came from. Of
course, all the people who had accused him of copying
their coloring (previous interchange concerning the
assignment had occurred), said, 'Sure you do,‘ very sar-
castically. He proceeded to explain that babies come out
of people's stomachs when they die. I was quite surprised
at this but the girls he was speaking to just asked him
how he knew for sure. He told them that his grandfather
takes care of dead people and that his grandfather and
mother had six babies. Noneof the young ladies disputed
the point so the topic died there.1 6

Observation by an undergraduate student
in Education 412 Growth and Development
of Children

51

The observation cited above is an excellent example of the
confusion six year olds experienced while struggling with the con-
cepts of death and birth. Certainly the children opened many avenues
of search as well as questions. Is this a conversation one would
expect from six year olds in a classroom for children with ordinary
needs? What is the purpose of this conversation? Is observation
of this conversation worthy of scrutiny? Is the concept of death
developmental in nature with children? What does the teacher do
with this information? Is sexuality or death part of the curriculum?

As discussed previously, death and sexuality are often
linked; death has replaced sexuality as the taboo topic in our
society today. According to Sylvia Anthony,

Parents today are mostly well prepared to answer their

children's questions about birth and sex, but may be troubled

when they have to deal with questions about death. The

facts and the thought may be distressing to themselves.

They may repress thought on the subject. Freud's

biographer, Dr. Ernest Jones, suggests that Freud himself

did $0.137
Tallmer, Formanek and Tallmer have views similar to Anthony. I'In
many ways, the status of death as a subject for discussion by
children may be likened to attitudes toward sexuality pre-Freud, i.e.
sexual ideation emerged full grown from an adolescent's head."138

According to Kastenbaum, judicious selection and even cen-
sorship have been used in order to keep death and sex themes from
fairy tales. Kastenbaum suggests that the Victorian image of child-

hood innocence may have hidden actual sexual abuse of children and

disturbing suicidal behavior on the part of young children in

52

139

Victorian times. He also speculates that the lack of recognition

concerning sexuality and mortality as it relates to children might
be a way parents reduce pressure from the ”moving-up generation.”140
As early as 1927 Susan Isaacs, a British children's psy-
chologist, pondered the evasion of the sexuality and death themes
with children. It was assumed the botanical approach was a lead-in
to sex education. Isaacs questioned this:
Are the sexual processes in plants assumed to throw light
upon human sexual physiology?... Do we favour the study of
plants just because it is more remote from the facts of
human sexual relations, and we are afraid to make more than
a half—concession to our conviction of the child's need for
knowledge and understanding.141
She then suggests children are far more interested in animals than
plants. Although children have been encouraged in the care of
animals,
it has not been considered desirable that he should take
any interest in (a) the facts of internal structure and
physiology—-particularly if this involves any reference
to the processes of digestion, excretion, re roduction,
etc., in humans; and (b) the facts of death. 42
Kastenbaum identifies developmental level "as an important
influence upon the child's emotional orientation to death.” After a
person realizes death cannot be escaped, she/he will feel differently
toward death compared to the time when it was thought of as an
inconvenience easily outwitted.143
Ongoing research has provided evidence that the guiding
force of awareness of death is active at all age levels, Feifel tells
us. Only recently has it been discovered that children have fear of

or concern with, death. ”...mounting evidence suggests that the

53

primary existence of death is available to the child as early as
two or three years of age."144 And as humans develop there are
qualitative changes in the meanings of death.145 As a result of the
developmental cycle of maturation the significance of death is very
different at differing ages of 3, 30 and 60.

These qualitative changes as a child develops often bring
confusion. The next section examines the misunderstandings which
may occur during the growth of a child's concept of death.

Children's Confusions and
Misunderstandings

 

 

Let us return to the observation of the child cited at the
beginning of this section. From an adult perspective, the child
appears extremely confused in his thinking about sexuality and mor-
tality. Connor and Doerring, however, maintain

Children's understandings are often constructed out of their
own unique combinations of partial information, single
dimensioned perceptions, and undifferentiated feelings.

For them fantasies are real and certainly the ones a child
creates about death may have exceedingly disruptive effects
on his personality.145

Evelyn Pitcher in Children Tell Stories reports that the
themes of aggression, hurt or misfortune, or death, resulting from
the analysis of the stories in their study were expressed in the
"context of apparently stronger affects than any of the other."147
She also thinks the vulnerability of young children to fears in the
early years such as fears of falling or the loss of a parent or home

or personal parts must face the child with many mystifying events.

54

His relative lack of experience, only tentative ability to
distinguish between fact and fantasy, and uncertain appre-
hension of time sequences tend to make every experience
potentially destructive. It is difficult for the child to
perceive an experience as a single passing incident in a
life full of incidents; he is more likely to view an exper-
ience as one beyond which there is nothing else.

(In this study Death and Aggression as themes were difficult to
separate since often aggression had been used previous to the death.)
Anthony explains the conceptualization process in the

following manner:

The child's conceptual scheme is built up on subjective
interpretations of objects in terms of familiar things
and functions, plus queries. In this process social com-
munication as well as independent sensory perception plays
a part. It was found, however, that the maturity of
children's concepts of death was related more closely to
mental than to chronological age, irrespective of the
distinctive content of what they had been told. Social
teaching independent of experience was swallowed whole,
as it were, undigested. Children would believe that a
worm or rabbit after burial would go up into the sky and
be no longer bodily present in the ground.149

Piaget states, “Arising from the relations between personal
activity and the external world, at first (causality) partakes of
efficacy mixed with phenomenalism but later...is incorporated into a

"150

system of pure relations. "The relationship between the death

concept, reasoning, and the concept of cause is of critical importance
throughout life, and central to our theme," comments Anthony.15]
When young, the child confuses time and being in his mental thought
processes. If the child is faced with questions or statements about
happenings when he/she was not a being, confusion may result. The
child might deny the fact clearly or possibly he/she might become

152

entangled in contradicting statements. "We must avoid the danger

 

55

of supposing that irrational thinking of this kind occurs in the
child but not in the adult, or that irrational ideas of similar con-
tent have similar origin or function in child and adult” ....reports
Anthony.153
Anthony states,
The intelligent adolescent's concept of death refers to
mortality as physically ascertainable. In the child's
earliest conception, physical observations of this kind
play only a small part. They are the keystone rather than
the foundation of the final structure.... Their (young
children) concepts of death and of life are often erroneous
and always incomplete.154
Unfortunately, many adults assume children are small adults
who need education. However, most teachers and parents realize that
the mental processes used by children are not as developed as those
of adults. In fact, children are not capable of assimilating the
experiences of others. A child under the age of six or seven may
not be able to implement "cognitive reciprocity" as it is termed by
Piaget. In other words, the child does not benefit from learning
outside the realm of his own experience. Koocher concludes, ”In
talking about death, therefore, such children will naturally react
in the light of their own experiences and of what they have been told
by adults or have seen in the media."155
Anthony writes, "The concept (death) remains a source of
emotion and autonomic arousal, perhaps of anxiety, of mockery, of
defiant bravado, perhaps a stimulus to a perpetual search for answers.

Concepts of death and cause tend to remain closely tangled.”156

56

How does the young person bring clarity to the confusion
and misunderstandings? The next section examines the literature
relevant to this question.

Children's Clarification of the
Concept of Death

One of the needs of children who experience death is guidance

 

in understanding the events so they can accept the fact of death at

157

their developmental level. Koocher, a psychologist at The

Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, along with a faculty
person at Harvard University Medical School, believes "most children
show a desire to I-master' death in some sense by learning about it

and knowing, as much as is possible, what happens to make things

die_..158

Frances Wickes, a contemporary of Susan Isaacs, in The Inner
World of Childhood, speaks of mastery in quite a different manner;
her mastery has more feeling in it.

...There is a constant interplay of the forces of retreat
and advance. As soon as life demands a greater degree of
consciousness there comes the temptation to retreat, the

desire not to accept the new understanding which must of

necessity bring with it a great responsibility.

Even very little children feel this urge. Sometimes they
voice this desire to remain unconscious so clearly that
certain ones will try to go to bed when they feel that they
are asked to do something too hard (as expression of the
desire for sleep and forgetting the pull of death). Death
desires are strong even in children, though usually they are
masked even to the one who feels their urge. Nevertheless
we all have this desire to remain unconscious of the suffer-
ing and evil in the world about us, of which it is easier

to remain ignorant; unconscious of the changing demands of
society which would force upon us the consideration of new
problems; unconscious of the things which would necessitate
new adjustments of personal relationships; and most of all

57

unconscious of the undercurrents of our own psychology. of
the inferior thing in ourselves which, raised to conscious-
ness, would necessitate a new valuation of ourselves and a
new conception of our responsibility. Unconsciousness of
all these things relieves us of the burden of growth;

but even as the urge of death is toward unconsciousness the
urge of life is toward a fuller consciousness. Whenever
we accept this dynamic urge of life there is a rebirth of
the spirit.159

Clarification throggh fantasy created by_the child.--An
illustration involving the mastery of death at a very practical level
in the life of a child was illustrated through the use of children's

'60 The children were seven years old. A fanciful child

stories.
said, "I am going to pretend I am a little dog who went with his
master for a walk in the forest and got lost in a snowstorm." All

the children were delighted to join in the tale but the stories they
told were very different.

One child's story ended, ”It was dark; very, very dark. It
was cold; very, very cold. I was lost; very, very lost. There was
nothing I could do about it, so I just lay down in the snow and died."

Now the other story was quite different.

I felt cold white feathers falling on my nose and it was
fun and I chased them farther and farther into the forest
and it got dark and I couldn't find my master and I was
lost. So I crawled into a hollow log to wait for morning.
But it was all worthwhile, for that night another little
dog crawled into the other end of the log and next
morning we had eight puppies.

Clarification through dreams.--Wickes reported then

remembering a dream told by the child who "just lay down in the

snow and died."

l—Nr—r"’€¢* «"1“, ' ,_ ,_ 7‘ .- ,

58

I came home from school but the door was locked, and all
the blinds were down tight, and I knocked but no one came
and I knew Mother had gone away forever and forever, and
there was no place to go, and there was nothing I could do
about it. Then I woke up in the dark and there was the
dream staring at me.

As it happened a divorce was pending in this child's family.
The child did not know this but evidently the emotional level of the
family was empty of love. Subconsciously her nature "flowed into

this dark sea of no return." She "just lay down and died." (See

Krantzler, Creative Divorce.)]6]

Wickes continued,

I saw how this attitude permeated every experience. Even

the smallest schoolroom task could defeat her. At the first
challenge in realtionship, in lessons, even in her games with
the other children, she 'just lay down and died'; that is,
she completely repudiated the idea that she, her own small
self, could do anything about it. She was constantly
defeated by her own sense of inadequacy and her terror of
life itself. This sense of doom was the deepest undercurrent
of her nature. The first prerequisite was that someone
should believe in her potentialities and love her as she was,
without waiting for the transforming touch that should make
her possibilities into actualities. 52

Clarification through literature.-—Children, unlike adults,
do not inhibit their expression of thoughts about death; often these
thoughts are developed in fantasy according to Freud. This observa-
tion has been confirmed by subsequent research in Switzerland,

163 This does not mean necessarily

England, Hungary and America.
that the child's behavior is normally free from anxiety. Since this
anxiety can be promoted or obstructed, the question which frequently
arises for debate is the advisability of telling children the

traditional fairy tales.

_-- ~ , ~ -.
mflmh_e‘-u-q ., - ,

59

Fairy tales treat the topic of death frequently but this
does not make them unsuitable for children since death enters into
children's fantasies often. However, the adult who offers this type
of literature for the child's enjoyment is promoting ”a sadistic
disposition" in the child according to Anthony. Anthony also
believes this approach could increase anxiety in children who on
surface observation might appear to accept or reject the fairy

tale.164

When a child can read herself/himself, then the person can
be given the freedom to select or reject his/her reading material.
The adult might need to be alert to the child's reactions.

The general view, however, that folk tales are appropriate
material for young imaginations is based on sound psychology in
Anthony's estimation. The employment of simple symbols which the
child is capable of understanding lends a positive value to folk
tales.

Ultimately, however, the defense of folk tales in the nursery
is not that they excite to the learning of or pleasure in
scientific fact, that that they communicate ways of thinking,
symbols, concepts and attitudes that enrich and humanize

life. This is done by handling the whole natural range of
human activity with cultural singleness and simplicity. 55

Clarification through animals--care of, observation of and

dissection of --In the 1930's, Susan Isaac maintained that opinion

 

was rigid regarding the fields of fact which adults would allow the
young child to become interested in within the study of animals.
If children ten years or older were given information about physiology,

textbooks or diagrams were used. Older children, however, were not

6O

given the opportunity for direct investigation by dissecting the
bodies of dead animals; such a method of accumulating knowledge
was completely out of the question for young children.

So strong is this widely held attitude that it is difficult
to get many people even to consider the possible wisdom of
the opposite course-~they are too disturbed by the mere
suggestion to be able to give it any attention. Perhaps
they fear that to '1ook inside' dead bodies will either
shock and frighten the children, or will encourage them

to cruelty with living animals. But when one assures

them from one's own experience that the majority of little
children are not shocked nor frightened, nor made cruel by
these ways of study, the solid wall of prejudice does not
melt away, and one is in the end left with the suspicion
that the real attitude is 'Well, if they're pgt shocked

or frightened, they ought to be!'155

Anthony states that the child's reaction to the killing of

animals may be very profound and long-lasting; it may determine

167

behavior through life. Isaacs suggests the moral field of adult

behaviors with animals presents more confusion, contradictions and

inconsistencies than any other.168

Clarification through questioning and discussion.--Citations

 

from Wickes in the section concerning clarification through fantasy
have given some insight into the manner in which a child's cognitive
style or language can reveal his/her attitude toward life. Koocher
has an excellent case study of a five year old boy who misinterprets
adult comments pertaining to death. The child began throwing temper
tantrums before bed. Koocher uses this example in order to show the
"harm that can result from not talking about death with children."169

Koocher found children very willing to discuss their thoughts about

death with sensitive adults.

 

61

The Supportive Adult in the
Clarification Process

 

 

There is too much to say,

too many directions because attitudes
toward death color all of our thinking

and doing things,

ways of coping with trouble,

ways of enjoying ourselves.

I could start with almost any subject--
discipline, toilet training, jealousy,
learning to count, fighting, shyness,

eating fussiness, why we take them to the zoo,
and develop the idea of how this is related
to the child's conception of life and death.

Adah Maurer

"Intimations of Mortality"

From the Journal of Child Psychology
Summer, 1974

Knowledge About Children's
Intelléctual Development

 

 

Which Clarifies the Con-
ceptualization Process

 

Although the following authors have not worked in the field
of death awareness, their findings have bearing on the topic of the
development of concepts because of their research into the intellect-
ual development of children. Wann, Dorn, and Liddle in Fostering

Intellectual Development in Young Children, "learned a number of

 

 

things about children's understanding and interpretationcfi’their
physical and social environment and what we (they) can do to help

170 Their learnings

them clarify and extend their understandings."
are as follows:
1. Children are collectors of information.

Not only did the children observed have a wide range of
information, but the extent and depth of the information

62

was considered significant. The children also received
much satisfaction in possessing the information and in
using it. The interests were global and even universal
in scope. Death was one of the topics mentioned by
children.

2. Young children employ the essential elements of the
process of concept formation.

The children continually sought information on a given
topic; then they "tried to relate and test one bit of
information against another. They were associating
ideas, attempting to discover cause and effect relation-
ships, classifying and generalizing about those things
which they see, hear, and feel in their environment."

3. Teachers can enrich experiences for children by studying
children as we did.

The authors wanted a balance of intellectual, social,
emotional, and physical development in young children.
However, they felt children at this age needed more
intellectual challenges but there were few indicators
which gave guidance.

4. "The process of concept formation observed in many of
the children suggests that we might consider knowledge
as keys to the facts or information which should be
taught."

Since children are so interested in fitting together
isolated phenomena, bits of information, and the actions
of people, this approach might be a worthy one to use.

The four major points of learning from the study of Wann,

Dorn, and Liddle listed above most certainly clarify to some extent
the confusions within the observation at the beginning of this
section on the process of conceptualizing death. If this study,
which was not related to death, is helpful, could other studies
illuminate the development of concepts in children? Is there a need
for studying children in relationship to death or is there an

abundance of this type of study? What does the past reveal?

 

63

Anthony found in 1940 that school-age children thought
readily of the subject of death. Not only did it appear in their
play but it arose in their fantasies as well. If grief or fear,
loss or separation was suggested, the response of death was evi-

dent.]71

Previously in 1937 Schilder and Wechsler had done a study,
"The Attitude of Children Toward Death,” and they had concluded
that a study in depth, with children directly involved, was greatly
needed. Anthony's study confirmed Schilder and Wechsler's work.172
The next clinical study by Nagy in 1948 was done with Hungarian
children, four to ten years of age. Again her data reaffirmed the
work of Schilder, Wechsler and Anthony. The subject of death was
very important to even the youngest child observed.173
For the next 20 years, no one studied the subject more

deeply nor did anyone do a critical review. Rochlin then did a
study in which he tried to show that, not only is death a matter of
deep concern to the very young child,

but also that his thoughts of dying are commonplace. They

serve as important determinants in his emotional develop-

ment. I shall show, moreover, that his behavior is influ-

enced by such thoughts, which are decisive in respect to

some of his lifelong beliefs.”4
In The Psychology of Death, Kastenbaum suggests observation

"175 He

of the "young child's mental operations for their own sake.
believes that objective and patient research might reveal that the
first important doubt to engage the mind of the child wou1d be the
problem of death; and this might be the first spark to the continu-

ation of his mental development. "How can we have ignored this

64

176

possibility so long?" Anthony has said, "Our present proposition

is that stages in the conceptualization of death may initiate stages

of intellectual growth.177

In another article dealing with this same theme, Kastenbaum
speaks of the direction of thought we might take toward the child's
conception of death. There is the possibility of contrasting
adult opinions of death with the child's opinions. ”But we might
also observe the child's changing orientation toward death as a

phenomenon deserving study and respect in its own right, not merely

as a stepping-stone toward some ideal concept."178

It appears the child has the desire, and the need to master
death: does it follow then that there is a need for adults who are
interested in studying the child in relationship to death? Tallmer,
Formanek and Tallmer state,

Although there is presently an increased interest in the
topic of death, evidenced, for example, by the launching
of a Foundation of Thanatology in New York City, there is
correspondingly a puzzling dearth of information concerning
this subject in relation to children. ...The development
of conscious and unconscious thoughts about death,
immortality and the process of dying are t0pics which
merit scientific investigation. Despite this need,
however, an implicit embargo does exist and may be
measured by both the lack of pertinent research and the
slighting of empirical evidence that does surface. We
have made the topic a non-topic. For example, Anthony's
book, The Child's Discovery of Death, has had practically
no heuristic significance whatsoever, although it was
published in 1940, a period of generalized world conflict
and violent, widespread death.1 9

Many writers, then, think the need for adults to study
children in relationship to death is evident. Some of these writers

speak more specifically to the method of studying children. Anthony

 

65

suggests, "Knowledge, gained by controlled observation and record,

of the way the idea of death and the emotion arising from it develops

in childhood may help the adult to guide the child along a path which

later has some hard going for every human being."180
Does the process of the conceptualization of death inter-

relate with the intellectual growth of the child? Anthony proposes

that "stages in the conceptualization of death may initiate stages

181

of intellectual growth." Possibly she is suggesting obstacles to

growth when she discussed the relationship between old age and con-
ceptualization. Children see the dead as one group and those who
die as a separate group. Often those who die are old since old
age is given often as a leadup to death. Then, when the child
affirms death for himself, thinks of himself growing older and then
dying, he may decide children do not die. Right then, he may not
wish to grow up.182
Another relevant idea presented by Anthony was the follow-

ing:

In studying records made in childhood of children now

grown up, it has seemed to me that their early interest in

the discovery of death may have had some connection with

their major interests in later life. And it would seem

that such special interest may lead either to avoidance or

approach in respect of activities emotionally associated with

the idea of death.... So it is suggested that the way death

is represented in the early thinking of the child may

influence the direction of his major interests through

life.183

A separate stage in intellectual growth, Anthony maintains,

is indicated when one can face the thought of her/his own death.

 

66

It was suggested by Piaget some 40 years ago that the
child's encounter with the idea of death plays a special
part in intellectual development. The idea of death, he
wrote, sets the child's curiosity in motion because if,
for him at an early age, every cause is coupled with a
motive, then death calls for a special explanation....184

In The Language and Thought of the Child, Piaget commented that

 

things seem well ordered until the child becomes conscious of the

difference between life and death.185

"The concept of death and the concept of time seem to be
continuously interactive; there is no two-way traffic. It has been

said that through the realization of death man is enabled to per—
186

ceive time, states Anthony. When the child could define the
word dead logically and physiologically, the development of the
child's concept of death seemed to have reached maturity. However,
for the adult and adolescent this definition stage is only the
beginning of the meaning of death. The idea develops continually.
The concepts of time and cause along with the concept of man is
linked together in some complicated manner that philosophers and
physicists are challenged to unravel the ideas. Anthony continues
that young children in our own culture differ between themselves in
their concepts of life and death.187
In a more universal vein, Anthony states
Children spontaneously interpret in various ways the
objective sources of phenomena, whereas a culture develops
an interpretation relatively consistently. Children do not
echo concepts from distant cultures. They offer, in every
culture and every generation a variety of potential founda-

tions for religion, philosophy and myth, relatively inde-
pendent of the selection made by their own society.188

 

67

The child's process for conceptualizing death, and sorting
out the confusion, is lengthy and complex. Many diverse methods can
be, and are used by children depending on his/her developmental level
and individual interest, skills and abilities. A few selected
methods used by a child in clarifying the concept of death are
fantasy, dreams, literature, care of animals, questions and dis-
cussion. Many authorities, who have studied death and youth agree
on the need for more studies focused on children and their relation-
ship to death. In the section that follows, the role of the
supportive adult in assisting youth with death is examined.

The Role of the Supportive Adult
in the Clarification Process

 

 

Connor thinks

the conceptual understanding of death is an educational
task which should not be neglected, for children at the
age of two or three are beginning to realize that there
are some things beyond human control and they need help
in accommodating themselves to this awareness.

He continues,

Death is a difficult concept for adults to accept, and

a great degree of this difficulty may be attributed to

the adults' own lack of resolution of feelings about

death and other separations, thus hampering their 189

attempts to be of assistance and comfort to children.
Gartley and Bernasconi find that facing the thought of death is
"an easier task for children than it is for most adults.”190

In an article, "Childhood: The Kingdom Where Creatures

Die," Kastenbaum begins with two facts: ”(1) Most children have a

variety of death-related thoughts and experiences that are central

li—i - , “23313- :! ' ,,,_.- A A, , . V 2",

 

68

to their personality development; (2) Most adults speak and act

as though children were oblivious to death.“191

This incongruity
leads to prejudices of adults toward content areas for children

and then to the thoughts and experiences concerning death which the
children have. Let us look toward the children first.

Sylvia Anthony reports in The Discovery of Death in Child-

 

hood and After, about Professor David Katz's views of the relationship
of death and children in 1936:

We have tried as far as possible to keep away from the
children any conception of death, especially in connection
with human beings. Of what use would it have been to dis-
turb them with thoughts about death, which must necessarily
be extremely mysterious and terrible to them, if they hear
of it and yet have no consolation of any kind to support
them....19

In 1974 Kastembaum believed the denial of death with children
is still with us because of the model society presents. Then, too,
Kastenbaum continues, denying death to children protects adults at
certain vulnerable points. If a parent has an inmortal child, it
is one way of keeping the child-self alive. By assuming children
are not related to death through their own thoughts or experiences
it helps the parent think he can survive in her ”own flesh and
blook...."

The parent who has not come to terms with his or her own
death-related anxieties may feel at a loss in responding
maturely to the child's experiences.... Often enough, a
conversation that begins with the parent's expressed con-
cern about 'managing' the child's death experiences shifts
into a deeply felt exploration of the parent's own unre-
solved problems that have been exacerbated by the current
episode. They assume that adults actually have the power

to tell children about mortality or to keep them shrouded
in blissful ignorance.

69

Anthony is even stronger in her message.

When adults attempt to keep from the child such facts as
his personal experience would otherwise present to him,
he may suspect deception, and develop anxieties in con—
sequence more morbid and persistent than those which the
perception of the reality would have aroused.194

There are three different observations in Anthony's records where

the children deny a fact relating to death and the mothers assist

the child's denial.195

There are three reasons Anthony gives for the parent's
unwillingness in many cases to deny reality for the child:

(1) the desire to satisfy his own conscience; (2) the
desire to do so particularly in relation to the child,
as the child's model; and (3) the fundamental wish to
maintain a code for social communication corresponding
to pragmatic reality and natural law, or in other words,
to teach the child by example to tell the truth about
matters of serious concern.196

The concepts of death held by children tend to mirror those

of their society. Children learn from all that is occurring around

them, not only from what is purposefully taught.197

There seemed to be so strong a tendency to encourage
regressive impulses in the contact between adults and
child on the subject of death that communication fre-
quently confuses rather than clarifies the child's
conception.198

Gartley and Bernasconi agree that parents usually protect

children from death because of their own inability to face death.199

Rochlin, Director of Child Psychiatry Services at the Massachusetts
Mental Health Center, comments:

It is the conventional view that the child does not know

about death. This seems to be as true of culturally archaic

peoples as of modern society. Death as a subject for dis-
cussion is commonly treated by adults as if it were a

I ,, , .::.s.:::.":_‘_; H- -,-_ , A-.. _, ,

7O

prohibited issue where children are concerned. Children
may play death games endlessly so long as no one takes

that play seriously. When taken as a matter for sober
consideration, evasiveness is clearly evident on the part
of both the adult and of the child. Adults themselves are
reluctant to acknowledge, as we have noted, the inevitable
fate which awaits us all, and hence are the least likely
source of information. Moreover, there are often concerted
efforts to deny the child an awareness of death. The
inevitable discovery of death then becomes a private indi-
vidual experience of great magnitude. What such a discovery
means is not conveyed to young children either as a body

of dogma or as a natural phenomenon, nor is what to do
about it once the revelation occurs. The attempted
solution to the problems the discovery raises is universal
in the sense that children everywhere seem to find
remarkably similar solutions.200

Three basic roots to this conspiracy of silence in discussing
death with children are suggested by Koocher. (l) The adult's own
emotional entanglement with the topic might keep him from facing
death. (2) She/he might not know where to begin in the discussion
or how to sort the important points from the unimportant. (3) An
emotional crisis might precipitate a situation before the adult
is prepared.201

Kastenbaum refers to a study that concluded

it would appear that the socially desirable attitude toward
death attitudes is that one should be able to face death
with equanimity and perspective but if one cannot bring
this off wi h a flourish, it is better to avoid the topic
altogether.

”One of the many problems in dealing with children and death
or with the dying child is the tendency of adults to equate their
perceptions of death with the child's perceptions," asserts Sarah

Cook, a nurse and writer.203

71

When Susan Isaacs deals with the avoidance of death and
sexuality themes with children in relationship to animals, she
suggests certain conditions for ”active, continuous and cumulative
interest in animal and plant life.” The following quotation gives
the conditions:

A. That we free ourselves from prejudices and inadequate
thinking, as to

l) The order in which plant and animal life should
be dealt with; and

(2) The fields of fact which are acceptable to the
little child, and educationally valuable.

B. That we follow the child's actual direction of interest,
day-to—day questionings, and provide the situations and
material which will answer his questions, and stimulate
his interest still further.

If this quotation of Isaacs was amended to include human life, these
suggestions might stand today as a firm base for the supportive
adult interested in helping children with death education.

Some background knowledge about the concept of death which
Kastenbaum gives prove helpful for the supportive adult. The
information also is helpful in analyzing the data.205

1. The concept of death is always relative.

2. The concept of death is exceedingly complex.

3. Concepts of death change.

4. The developmental I'goal" of death concepts is obscure,
ambiguous, or still being evolved.

5. Death concepts are influenced by the situational
context.

6. Death concepts are related to behavior.

72

Kastenbaum examines the idea of death as part of a child's
intellectual development. When a child speaks three words, "I will
die,” it sounds simple. "However, the concepts implied by this
statement are not within the reach of the young child's mind.”206

”I will die" is a simple statement a young child could
verbalize. Yet the person who makes that simple statement must have
mastered many complicated concepts to truly understand it. Kastenbaum

lists the eight concepts which are involved.

1. I_am an individual with a life of my own, a personal
existence.

2. I belong to a class of beings one of whose attributes
is mortality.

3. Using the intellectual process of logical deduction,
I must arrive at the conclusion that my personal death

is a certainty.

4. There are many possible causes of my death, and these
causes might operate in many different combinations;
although I might evade or escape one particular cause,
I cannot evade all causes.

5. My death will occur in the future. By future, I mean
a time-to-live that has not yet elapsed.

6. But I do not know when in the future my death will
occur. The event is certain; the timing is uncertain.

 

7. Death is a final event. My life ceases. This means
that I will never again experience, think, or act, at
least as a human being on this earth.

 

8. Accordingly, death is the ultimate separation of
myself from the world.

Even this incomplete analysis indicates that the statement
"I will die” requires self-awareness, logical thought operations,

conceptions of probability, necessity, and causation, of personal

73

and physical time, of finality on the part of the speaker. The
available evidence strongly suggests that the young child lacks
almost all the mental operations required to form the separate
concepts which are integrated into the recognition of personal
mortality.207
Isaac's solution to the confusing dilemma faced by children

when they observe the contradictions in the area of adults'
attitudes and actions in the field of pets, animals and the eating
of meat might be equally applicable to the supportive adult's role
in the observation which started this section on the conceptualiza-
tion of death in children.

The solution for the educator must lie rather in a more

balanced and positive attitude to the various psycho-

logical tendencies and external necessities which lie

behind these confusions and contradictions. Is it

possible to arrive at a reasonably consistent set of

standards for the demands we make on children, one that

will be both more honest and more intelligible to them,

and more easily maintained against real necessity? One,

moreover, that will yield a more satisfactory psycho-

logical solution for their own internal conflicts?208

Many writers in addressing children's conceptual under-

standing of death have made suggestions concerning the role of
adults, including teachers, in the guidance of children in this
important developmental and educational task. The focus of the
present research will turn now to the examination of the supportive

adult's role, the teacher, with youth and the school community.

74

Summary

The attitudes of society toward death were examined, and
the literature centering on the attitudes of helping professionals
toward death was reviewed. The relationship between children and
the conceptualization of death was examined, and the particular
needs of adolescents were reviewed. The role of the supportive
adult in the clarification process was examined. In the chapter

that follows, the methodology for the research is discussed.

DEATH

Who set that endless silence
Of her breath?

Death is but death.

Death is like growing of people
It cannot be stopped.

Miracles: Poems by children
of the English-speaking world.

Collected by Richard Lewis
UNESCO

75

 

CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
The population and research setting along with the methodo-
logy used in the research are presented in this chapter. In

addition, the interview guide, pilot study and plan for analysis

of the data are discussed.

Population and Research Setting

 

The research was conducted at Michigan State University
during a summer session. Thirty-six volunteers participated in
the research; ten educators for the pilot study, thirteen teachers
of children (elementary, defined as preschool through fifth grade)
and thirteen teachers of pre-adolescents and adolescents (secon-
dary, defined as sixth through twelfth grade) for the study
itself. The volunteers were chosen from three graduate classes in
the College of Education. These classes were scheduled during the
first five weeks of the summer session. All interviewees were
experienced teachers. Every grade level was represented from
preschool through twelfth grade.

In the elementary group of teachers representation covered
preschool through fifth grade. The secondary group of teachers

included middle school and high school teachers from sixth

76

77

grade through twelfth grade. The thirteen secondary teachers
represented the following specialities: math and science, sixth
grade with football coaching, reading, math, vocational education,
English, art, generalists (in middle school) and English with
basketball coaching. (See Table l.)

The researcher requested entry from the professors into the
classes from which the volunteers were solicited. The professors
introduced the researcher to the class so the nature of the research
could be explained briefly.

In recruiting the volunteers the following remarks were
addressed to the university classes:

I would like interviews with a total of thirty-six teachers,
ten for a pilot study and twenty-six for the study itself.
This research will focus on the cognitive/affective develop-
ment of young people. If any of you would share some of
your past year's teaching experiences in this area with me,

I would like an hour, or possibly two, of your time. A
sign-up sheet is being passed through the group for those
teachers willing to participate in the study. School support
staff, such as school psychologist, counselor, or social
worker, would be welcome also. A minimum of one year of
professional employment within an educational framework
which served young people with a wide range of needs is
expected.

After the pilot study was completed, the request for
volunteers was narrowed to teachers who had taught children within
the normal range of needs for a minimum of one year. Since the pro-
fessors had offered the research as a legitimate class option
during their class meeting time, the enlistment of participants,

the scheduling and the interviewing was arranged easily.

TABLE l.--Interviewed Teachers by Grade and/or Subject.

.‘ - ‘—__— ‘y_-“v'_- ...-

78

 

 

Elementary Teachers

Secondary Teachers

 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Edge
Preschool
Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Fourth Grade
Fifth Grade

Total Number
of Teachers

Number

1

13

MIDDLE SCHOOL
Grade/Subject

 

Sixth

Math/science team
Sixth grade/football

Seventh

Reading
Math

Eighth
Ninth
English (7th-9th)

HIGH SCHOOL
Vocational Education
Electronics (9th-12th)
Home Economics
(lOth-12th)
English
English/basketball
(lOth-12th)
English (lOth-12th)
Art (lOth-12th)

Total Number
of Teachers

Total

13

 

79

Methodology

 

The methodology selected for the research was the interview.
All the interviews were completed by the researcher over a period
of four weeks. An informal setting conducive to a one-to-one
relationship and open communication was used. An outdoor area was
used when the weather permitted.

The purpose of the interviews was the gathering of observa-
tions of young persons in their classrooms and school buildings
during the previous teaching year. The observations were recorded
on interview guide forms. (These forms were used in the analysis of

the data.

The Interview Guide

 

Prior to the pilot study it was decided that taping the
interview might prove threatening to some volunteers. Extensive
notetaking also Was discarded due to the possible threat involved
and the impossibility of maintaining eye contact while writing
notes. An interview guide was developed for a recording tool; this
guide would require a minimum of effort on the interviewer's part.
A limited number of well-planned, open-ended questions would set the
framework for the interview. This method allowed for a flow of
information during the interview which would be an educational
process for both parties. (See Appendix A.)

The development ofiflmainterview guide was the beginning
framework for the analysis of the data. The guide was used during

the interview so that the data were organized into categories when

80

the interview was completed. The information recorded on the inter-
view guides was taken from the teachers' observations of their
students' reactions and their own reactions to their students'

death experiences during the past school year.

The exploratory questions of this study were used in
developing the format of the interview guide: Are teachers aware
of their students' experiences with death? If they are aware, do
teachers use this awareness within the school community? The
third question stated in the problem was addressed in the grouping
of the sample into elementary and secondary teacher: Are there
differences in the awareness, and the use of this awareness,
between teachers of children and teachers of adolescents?

In order to aid in organizing the data at the end of the
interview the broad areas of awareness and the use of awareness
. were outlined in more detail. The range of student experiences with
death was more defined by listing the types of deaths which a
student might experience. Fourteen types of death were listed in
the guide. A few examples of the death categories are: pet,
stranger, parent, adult on the school staff, and child in the
classroom.

A teacher could use a student's experience with death in
interaction with people within the school community, in curriculum
planning and/or in consultation with parents and staff. The
interaction was subdivided further into interaction with students

and adults. Then, the various groupings of people, with which a

81

student or teacher could interact, were established. A few of the
groups are: with you (the teacher), with other adults, or with
children.

A chart was developed by combining the types of death and
the many categories of interaction. The interviewer could record
the material by checking the chart during the interview or imme-
diately following the interview.

The interaction between the teacher and other adults in the
school community was one focus in the interview guide; more speci-
fically, consultation requested, offered, and given. Another focus
was the teacher's use of curriculum planning concerning the
student's death experience. Class-planned activities following the
death were recorded, such as sympathy notes, along with teacher
planned lessons and activities, such as the careful selection of
children's literature centering on death.

Very brief notes were written occasionally during the
interview, but the recording of information was done with a minimum
of notation. Immediately upon completion of the interview, the
researcher reviewed the material so it could be recorded in a more
comprehensive manner if required.

With the use of this method primary importance could be
placed on the quality of interaction between the interviewer and
interviewee. The time was structured so that the interviewee could
use this time for reflection and integration of his/her observations

of the students' responses to their encounters with death.

 

E ,, VJiK‘rfic‘:, ‘ , '., 'E,

82

The Pilot Study
The purpose of the pilot study was to field test the pro-

cedures and interview guide by which the researcher would collect
the data required for the study. Several questions related to this
objective were addressed: (1) Would a time period of one hour be
sufficient for the interview? Or should the interview be extended
if more time was needed? (2) Would the planned method for record—
ing the data be functional during the interview? (3) Would the
interview guide prove usable? (4) Would the sample need more
narrow definition?

The pilot interviews were completed during one week. Several
procedures used in the pilot study were tested and adopted. The one
hour time allottment proved sufficient in most interviews. There
were occasions when the interviewee suddenly recalled an experience
after the interview had terminated. Often it happened when the
setting had changed. The researcher made the decision to allow
extended time. Often important personal data were given during
the extended time such as: "I had a child die two years ago."

(The teacher was speaking of her own child and not a student). One
hour was allotted for each interview. An extension of one hour was
permitted.

The method, which had been planned for recording the
information during the interview, worked very well during the pilot
interviews. The recording was done easily with checks and a minimum

of writing. However, the immediate notation of more complex

7' -- - -n -u._.... --"

83

information demanded the scheduling of thirty minutes to an hour
between each interview.

The pilot study illuminated minor gaps in the structure of
the interview guide. For instance, in three categories the
researcher allowed for experiences within the class but not within
the school building. The death of a plant and other non-human living
things were mentioned by teachers during the pilot interviews so
the plant category was added to the interview guide. During the
study the interviewer was more attentive to the teachers' observa-
tions of non-human living things such as insects, frogs, and birds
as a results of the pilot interviews. The framework proved very
functional except for minor adjustments.

It became evident during the pilot study that limitations
on the categories of teachers would be necessary. First, the deci-
sion was made to interview only public school teachers. Public
school teachers had a system for consultant services which parochial,
private or daycare centers did not. Secondly, only the teachers
who taught children with a normal range of needs were interviewed.
One of the special education teachers interviewed during the pilot
study worked with non-verbal children so the information pointed to
the gap in communication with certain children about their specific
death experiences.

The pilot group of elementary teachers was weighted heavily
with preschool teachers. Thus, from those who volunteered,teachers
were chosen to obtain a balanced representation. The thirteen

elementary teachers were distributed evenly among grade levels.

r‘h

 

84

The percentage of humanities teachers in the pilot group of secon-
dary teachers was high so the researcher sought math and science
teachers to add balance in the secondary group. Grade levels were

distributed evenly in the secondary group of teachers also.

Analysis of the Data

Definition of Terms

 

It is important to understand the terminology used through-
out the study. The terms of interest, as used in the present study,
are defined as follows:

teacher of children (elementary teacher) — a teacher who

 

interacts with children, four years through eleven years old, in an
assigned grade and classroom for the major portion of the school
day in an elementary school.

teacher of adolescents (secondary teacher) - a teacher who
interacts with adolescents, twelve years through eighteen years old,
in an assigned grade or subject within a middle school, junior
high school, or high school for a limited portion of the day (such
as one or two hours).

teacher's observation - the teacher's description, using

 

her/his observational skills, of the student's experience with
death and the student's behavior in response to that death as
reported in the interview.

It is important for the reader to understand that a teacher's
observation could focus on an individual's response to a death

experience, a small group of students' responses,or'a large group

85

of students' responses(class)ufithin the classroom or within the
school setting, such as on the playground, in the halls, in the
gym, or in the library. A teacher's observation of students can,
and does, take place in any area of the school or grounds.

student's death experience - a death, non-human or human,

 

which the student has encountered within the past school year as
reported by his/her teacher in the interview.

teacher's awareness of the student's death experience -

 

the teacher reports the death experience of a student and/or
describes the student's response, if any, to the death experience
in her/his observations during the interview.

teacher's use of awareness - the teacher's description of

 

her/his behavior, if any, in response to the student's behavior
surrounding the death experience as reported in the interview.

non-verbal regponse - a student's behavior in response to

 

the death experience which includes all behavior, except verbal
behavior, as identified by the teacher in the interview. Non-
verbal responses are divided further into emotional and action
responses.

verbal response - a student's response to the death experi-

 

ence which employs language in oral, written, or signing form as
described by the teacher in the interview.

combination non-verbal and verbal response - a student's

 

behavior in response to the death experience which includes a
verbal response and one, or both types of non-verbal responses,

emotional and action.

86

class-plannedcurriculmp- follow-through behaviors on the

 

student's experiences with death initiated by the student's or
teacher's awareness, which include interaction, planning, and some
form of response to the death experience by the student(s) and
teacher, such as sending notes to the family, attending the funeral,
or burying the dead fish, as described by the teacher in his/her
interview.

teacher-planned curriculum regponse - a student's response

 

to an activity, lesson, or unit which has been initiated and planned
by the teacher using her/his awareness and observations of the
student's awareness and response to the death experience, as described
in the teacher's interview.

consultation by teachers with parents and staff - the

 

action(s) requested, offered and given by a teacher(s) with other
adults within the school community as a result of the teacher's
(teachers') awareness, and in response to, the student's death

experience described in the teacher's interview.

Data Analysis

 

In analyzing the data the researcher was confronted imme-
diately by the issue of providing quantitative information to the
exclusion of qualitative information. The quantitative information
was the simpler avenue, but this type of analysis presented no view
of the differences in quality in the following areas of interest:

1. The different levels of teachers' awareness which ranged

from no awareness to high awareness.

87

2. The quality and depth of the teachers' uses of their
awareness in their interactions with students and school
community.

3. The various levels of curriculum planning used by the
teachers in following through on their awareness.
(Planning ranged from simple to complex use of awareness.
Sometimes the teacher's awareness was not used due to a
value judgment about her role as a teacher.)

4. The quality and depth of young people's responses to
their experiences with death. These responses were non-
verbal and verbal. The verbal responses ranged from
simple to complex. The non-verbal responses were emotional
in nature sometimes and at other times the responses in-
volved action. Combinations of verbal and non-verbal
responses were reported, such as verbal, emotional and
action responses.

In short, there would be little depth to the study if only quanti—
tative aspects were analyzed.

The numbers of death experiences in each of the fourteen
categories were tallied from the interview guides as one criterion
for teachers' awareness. In some instances, the teachers remembered
a death, but no response by the students. A majority of the
teachers' reports, however, included a student's response along
with a death experience.

The data on the teachers' observations were presented in

a format where quantitative and qualitative aspects were both

88

available for the reader's perusal. For each exploratory question
the data were divided into two groups: the elementary students'
responses and the secondary students' responses. Each teacher's
individual observations were identified by the number assigned her
interview guide. Elementary teachers were assigned numbers one
through thirteen and secondary teachers were given the numbers
fourteen through twenty-six.

The teachers' observations of their students' responses to
death experiences were used as indicators of teachers' awareness, and
the use of awareness by the teachers, with one exception, the
category of consultation use. The data for consultation uses were
gathered by using the teachers' perceptions of help requested,
offered and given. The students' responses and teachers' self-
observations were grouped into elementary and secondary divisions
in the presentation of the data so the differences, if any, between
elementary and secondary teachers in their awareness, and use of
this awareness, could be examined.

The students' responses as observed by their teachers were
divided into four categories: non-verbal, verbal, combination of
verbal and non-verbal, and unknown. The numbers of student responses
reported by teachers for each category were sub-totaled and then
totaled.

The students' responses relevant to the teachers' use of
their awareness were analyzed along four dimensions: interaction

in the school community, class-planned curriculum, teacher—planned

 

 

89

curriculum, and consultation with other adults in the school
community.

Two categories of interaction were identified: interaction
initiated by students and interaction initiated by teachers. The
numbers of interactions within each category were gathered from the
interview guides.

The interview guides were examined also for each student
response to class-planned or teacher—planned curriculum. Each
student response was listed under the proper curriculum category
and under the student's teacher assigned interview guide. Totals
for the number of student responses, the number of responses to
each type of curriculum planning, and the number of elementary and
secondary student responses were easily available for review.

The teachers' observations regarding consultation use of
their awareness were grouped into three types: consultation
requested by teachers, consultation offered to teachers, and con—
sultation given by teachers. Elementary and secondary groupings
of the teachers' observations were used within each consultation

category. The data were taken from the interview guides.

Summar
In this chapter, the population, research setting, method-
ology, interview guide, pilot study and the plan for the analysis
of the data were described. In the following chapter, the results

of the study are discussed.

"Over a number of years K. Kollwitz worked on a monument for her
younger son who was killed in October 1914. His death became for
her a sort of personal obligation. ...she noted in her diary:
'There's a drawing made, a mother letting her dead son slide into
her arms. I could do a hundred similar drawings but still can't
seem to come any closer to him. I'm still searching for him as
if it were in the very work itself that I had to find him.'”

from Catalogue to an exhibition

of the works of K. Kollwitz,
London, 1967.

90

CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH

In this chapter the findings of the research relevant to each

question are presented and discussed. Where necessary, additional

discussion of the methodology used in analyzing the data is included.

Teacher Awareness of
Students' Experiences with Death

 

 

Are teachers aware of their students' experiences with death?
In response to this question relevant data were organized by dividing
the students' responses to their death experiences, as reported by
their teachers, into non-human and human deaths. Each student
response represents one death experience. The students' responses
are grouped further into four broad categories: non-verbal, verbal,
combinations of verbal and non-verbal, and unknown. In this format
the quantity, quality and depth of the students' responses are
available for review. The differences between teachers of children
and teachers of adolescents in their awareness of their students'

death experiences will be addressed in the presentation of the data.

91

Student

92

Responses to

Non-human Death Experiences

Non-verbal responses reported
by teachers

#12

#13

#14

#15

Elementary teacher

 

At recess a girl's frog was run over by a boy in another
class. The frog died immediately and then the owner
became very upset. She cried so hard that other chil-
dren comforted her.

Elementary teacher

 

The class hamster died in December. Rick became very
sad. He withdrew from class participation and often he
appeared to be daydreaming.

Elementary_teacher

 

During November Rick's behavior changed; he withdrew.
There was no apparent reason. One writing assignment
was remembered. The children were told, "Pretend you
are a turkey. How would you feel about Thanksgiving?
Write about it." Rick was adamant in his refusal to do
the assignment. Usually he was very cooperative.
Finally, he was told, "Write about any topic you would
like." However, he did not start the assignment. In

a few days the discovery was made about the death of
Rick's dog. The teacher thought the death of his dog
caused the change in his behavior. Rick ordinarily was
very conscientious and cooperative.

Secondary teacher

 

A plant tended by the students for months died suddenly.
Emotions of anger, sadness and disappointment were

shown by students during the day. The class atmosphere
was affected for a couple of days.

There were four non-verbal student responses reported by the

teachers. Elementary teachers reported three responses and secondary

teachers reported one response. The non-verbal responses often were

a combination of emotion and action by the students. The behavior

of the students experiencing the death changed. Sometimes this

93

change of behavior was obvious, such as tears, and sometimes the
change was more subtle, such as withdrawing from participation in
class activities.

Verbal Responses

Reported by Teachers

#8 Elementary teacher

 

During "show and tell" a child stated, "My cat was run
over."

#8 Elementary teacher

 

”One of the fish died. He's floating," stated a child.
The teacher disposed of the fish after the class left.

#9 Elementary teacher

One of the children brought a couple of frogs to school.
They died from over-exposure to the sun after being
placed on the window ledge. The teacher said, "Do you
want to take them home?" The child answered, "No, throw
them out."

#12 Elementary teacher

 

One of the children in this class wrote a letter to her
teacher telling about the death of the class hamster.

#12 Elementary teacher

 

Upon entry into the classroom, the teacher said to a
child, "How is your bird?" "He's dead," replied the child.

The interviewed teachers observed five verbal responses of
their students in reaction to the deaths of their pets. Elementary
teachers accounted for five verbal responses and secondary teachers
reported none. The verbal reactions were short and simple. In
three of the observations the child initiated the topic of death
and in two responses the teacher initiated a question which opened

the verbal exchange to the topic of the death experience.

94

Combinations of Non-verbal
and Verbal Responses
Reported by Teachers

#2

#3

#3

#3

#8

#9

#9

Elementary teacher

 

Observation by the teacher revealed this child was day-
dreaming. His mother called and told the teacher about
the child being extremely upset. He felt guilty over the
death of his bird which had died from overhandling by the
boy and his friends. The daydreaming continued for a
couple of weeks. He said over and over, "It was my fault."

Elementary teacher

 

The teacher noticed this child was very angry so she
talked with him about his anger. It was written in his
journal that his father had shot his puppy because the
dog had chewed a slipper.

Elementary teacher

 

This group planned many funerals during classtime. The
children wrote poems, songs, and eulogies which they used
during the funerals at recess. The funerals were held
for dead birds, bees, ants, and mice.

Elementary teacher

 

A child said to the teacher, "Let's use the fish for
fertilizer." He buried the fish.

Elementary teacher

 

During sharing time a child was very aggressive with the
other children. When the teacher explored his aggres-
siveness, the child said angrily, "My father got mad at
my dog and shot it."

Elementary teacher

 

A child told the class, "We buried a dead bird in our
yard." Another child confirmed it, "Yah, I saw him do it."

Elementaryxteacher

 

A fish was floating in the water.

Child: "There's a dead fish in here. What shall we do
with it?" .

Teacher: "What do you think we should do with it?"

Child: "Put it outside."

The child did take the fish outside when he was given permission.

95

#10 Elementary teacher

#11

#12

#13

#15

 

The mother rat had a litter, but she was eating one
baby a day on a regular basis. Each day the pre-school
children raced off the bus with a great excitement so
they could count the babies. This exchange between
children took place after a few days of counting and
losing baby rats:

Child: "My mother doesn't eat me."

Classmate: "No, we're people."

Elementary teacher

 

"A fish died," the teacher told her class. A child
answered, "Oh, flush it down the toilet." So the fish
was flushed down the toilet.

Elementary teacher

 

A child started telling the group about his dog dying
and he started crying. Other children then began
talking about their own experiences concerning death.
The teacher said, "I was afraid. I didn't know how to
handle it. I thought we'd get in too deep."

Elementary teacher

 

Rick's cat died in January. Rick was sick for three
weeks and he was very depressed. Rick came back to
school in the first part of February. Then, he was
sick for two weeks again. The social worker visited
Rick at home. On one of her visits with Rick he asked,
"I wonder if I'll die?" (See Appendix 8.)

Secondary teacher

 

While a class hamster was being checked by the animal
control person, the animal bit the official. The hamster
was flung to the ground. The children were very upset.
"Get him out of here, Ms. Jackson. He'll kill our ham-
ster." The students were very angry and visibly upset
with the inspector for his careless behavior with their
class pet. The inspector took the injured hamster with
him to the health office.

Each day a couple of students from the class checked with
the principal about the hamster's condition. Finally

the principal came to the class and said, "The hamster
ran away from animal control." Actually the principal
did not know about the hamster's fate.

 

_ i."

96

#15 Secondary teacher

 

The boa constrictor ate the rat during the class. Some
students were "horrified." Some youngsters were very
upset and excited. There was much talk about this
event and the class atmosphere became rather chaotic.
Finally, after much informal conversation, a discussion
evolved centering on survival and the life and death
cycle.

#17 Secondary teacher

 

A vocational education teacher was walking through the

halls when he observed a girl in his class crying by her

locker. He stopped and talked with her. She was upset

because someone had put a dead parakeet in her locker.

She said, "The person who did this was mean."

Interviewed teachers observed fourteen student responses
which combined non-verbal and verbal reactions. Three responses were
identified by secondary teachers and eleven responses were reported
by elementary teachers. The behavior of the student, or students,
had some effect on the class in thirteen observations. Sometimes
the effect was indirect, such as the child who was absent inter-
mittently due to the personal stress from his many death experiences.
Other times classmates were on the receiving end of stirred emotions
caused by the death experience, such as the child who was hitting
his classmateS/crying over her frog.

Teacher initiation or guidance into further exploration
occurred in two observations. In the other twelve responses the
child was allowed completion of his action, but the teacher did not
encourage the child or expand on the action or topic. In one

instance the children developed the opportunity for conversation

about their death experiences because the teacher was afraid. She

97

evidently did not feel comfortable in guiding the discussion, so
did nothing.

Pets accounted for thirteen of the death experiences in
this category. The two angry children had experienced violence
against their pet by a parent. Cooperation and complex planning
took place with the children who dealt with the impersonal death of
bees, ants and birds.

Unknown Responses
Reported by Teachers

Because of the manner in which one elementary teacher
responded to the death experience, the children's responses were
unknown.

#4 Elementary teacher

 

The teacher discovered a dead snake. She yelled and ran

from the room. She told four teachers about it later.

She could not remember the children's reactions to the

incident.

Two death experiences followed science experiments, but the
students' responses were unknown.

#18 Secondary teacher

 

A science experiment was set up with guppies. One half
of the guppies were placed in a well balanced environ-
ment while the other half of the guppies were placed in a
stagnant environment. As planned, the guppies in the
stagnant water died.

#18 Secondary teacher

 

Another experiment involved crickets which died. The
teacher could not remember any discussion about the
dead crickets or the planning of the death experience.

 

98

Teachers reported eight non-human death experiences for
which there were no reported student responses to the death experi-
ences; elementary teacher cited five deaths with no student
responses and secondary teachers identified three death experiences

with no student responses.

Awareness of Non-human Death

 

Elementary teachers reported twenty-four non-human deaths;
eight elementary teacher were represented with nineteen student
responses to the death experiences and five unknown student
responses. There were seven non-human death experiences identified
by secondary teachers. Two of the secondary teachers cited four
student responses with three unknown responses (see Table 2).

Eleven teachers reported no non-human deaths while fifteen
teachers reported a minimum of one non-human death. In the elem-
entary group eleven teachers reported one, or more, non-human
deaths and four teachers in this secondary group recorded one, or
more,non—human deaths.

The young persons' responses to these non-human deaths
ranged from highly emotional reactions, such as throwing objects
across the room in anger, to responses which produced non—emotion
action, such as burying the dead pet with no display of emotion.
Student responses included a variety of pets such as dogs, frogs,
birds, hamsters, cat, rat, and pig.

From the interviews of twenty-six teachers the following

data were gathered: four non-verbal student responses, five verbal

 

99

 

 

 

 

 

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gamma ness: spams amassicoz

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.gpmmo cues mmocmwcmaxm op mmmcoammm pcmuzpm--.m ubm<h

100

student responses, fourteen combinations of non-verbal and verbal
student responses, and eight unknown student responses. Secondary
teachers accounted for four observations of student responses while
elementary teachers cited nineteen student responses (see Table 3).
Behavioral changes by the students were evident in thirteen
of the student responses; nine student responses were reported by
elementary teachers and four responses were cited by secondary
teachers. A list of the words and phrases used by teachers in their
observations of their students' behavior following the death experi-

ence is included below:

cried so hard withdrew from class participation
daydreamed adamant in refusal to do the
anger assignment

sadness did not start the assignment
disappointment planned funerals

extremely upset wrote poems, songs, eulogies
felt guilty with great excitement

angry began talking

aggressive much talk

crying class atmosphere chaotic
depressed

sick

visibly upset

horrified

In total there were thirty-one non-human deaths reported by
twenty-six teachers with twenty-three student responses to these
deaths and eight unknown responses. Twenty-four non-human deaths
were in the category of pets. In the secondary group of teachers
there were seven non-human death experiences reported; three of the

deaths in this group were pets (see Table 2).

101

TABLE 3.--Number of Students' Death Experiences.

 

Categories of

Divisional Groups

 

 

 

 

Death Experience Elementary Secondary
Students Students
Non-human Death Experiences
Plant 0 l
Stray animal 4 3
Pet 20 3
TOTAL 24 7
Human Death Experiences
Dying student in class 0 O
Dying student in school 1 1
Student in class 1 1
Student in school 0 2
Sibling of student in class 2 0
Sibling of student in school 1 2
Dying parent of student in class 1 0
Parent of student in class 4 7
Parent of student in school 0 0
Close relative 8 0
Close friend of family 0 O
Neighbor 1 0
Dying teacher 0 0
Adult on school staff 4 l
A stranger 0 1
TOTAL 23 15

 

Student

102

Responses to

 

Human Death Exper1ences

 

Non-verbal Responses
Reported by Teachers

#4

#16

#17

#18

#19

Elementary teacher

 

A child's parent died. The child had been doing fine work,
but he became very depressed after the death. The quality
of his work dropped and he began acting differently. His
interaction with other students became minimal.

Secondary teacher

 

The art teacher checked with the counselor about one of
the boys in her class who seemed distant and preoccupied
much of the time. The counselor reported his mother had
died the year before and the boy had not adjusted to her
death. He would sit in the cemetery by her grave day
after day.

Secondary teacher

 

The father of a sixteen-year-old, who was a junior in high
school, committed suicide. The youth stayed home for a few
days. Immediately, he changed roles from that of a son to
that of the father in the family. From his teacher's percep-
tion there was no need for this change in this particular
family. In his senior year his academic work fell drasti-
cally. His attendance was erratic. He would stay home
with his brother with the most flimsy excuses. The

teacher recommended him to the Counselor. However, he did
not graduate that year. The teacher does not know if he
ever did finish school.

Secondary teacher

One of the elementary teacher died after a long illness
with cancer. However, she had taught until shortly before
she died. Many of these sixth grade students in this
teacher's class had had her for fourth grade. The day
after her death the children were very excited about the
news. They talked an excessive amount.

Secondary teacher

 

When a parent died, the class made a card.

103

There was a total of five non-verbal responses from the

interviewed teachers; one response was cited by an elementary

teacher

Four of

and four responses were identified by secondary teachers.

the death experiences centered on the death of a student's

parent while the fifth concerned the death of a teacher within the

building. In three of the observations the individual student's

behavior was affected deeply by the death and the student's academic

work fell in quality.

Verbal Responses Reported
by Teachers

#3

#9

#9

#12

#14

Elementary teacher

 

A handbill for a benefit basketball game was distributed
in class. The benefit was planned for a boy who was dying
of Hodgkins disease. One boy asked, "What is wrong with
him?" The teacher answered, "He has a disease that could
be fatal but using medications may cure him."

Elementary teacher

 

"My grandfather had a heart attack. It happens often
with relatives," a child stated.

Elementary teacher

 

When a child was putting on her coat, she remarked, "My
friend's mother passed out. The wake is tomorrow."

Elementaryxteacher

 

A child wrote in her daily log, "My grandmother died."

Secondary teacher

 

The teacher called the role on the first day of school.
When "Frances" was called, a couple of students said,
"She died this summer. Her house burned up. Her sister
burned too."

#||l|l l ll||| 1 J

104

#23 Secondary teacher

 

A student in another class killed a hunter. The students
in the class talked about it.

#24 Secondary teacher

 

A student's father died of cancer. The youth wrote poems
with heavy death themes after the death.

Seven verbal responses were reported by the teachers; four
responses were observed by elementary teachers and three responses
were cited by secondary teachers. In all seven responses the
student initiated the topic of his/her death experience. The
verbal expression was directed toward the teachers in six of the
incidents; one teacher reacted to the students' initiation. Because
of the curriculum structure the teacher learned about the students'
death experiences in two observations.

Combinations of Non-verbal
and Verbal Responses
Reported by Teachers

#1 Elementary teacher

 

The group collected money so a plant could be purchased
for Anita when her father committed suicide. Anita
blossomed after the death of her father. He was an
alcoholic. "I'm sorry," the teacher said to Anita on
her return to school. "What are you sorry about?"
Anita replied.

#3 Elementary teacher

 

In September Mark was rebellious, violent and non-verbal.
When the teacher contacted his mother, she was told the
family had no events occurring which might cause the
following unusual behavior:

He tore a teacher's manual in half.
He threw chalk and erasers across the room.
He would crawl under the desks and kick them.

105

He hit children for no apparent reason.

He would not participate in any activities.

Assignments were not finished or even begun.

Sometimes he would lie quietly under a table for
long periods.

Mark would not talk with the children or teacher. (See
Appendix C for all of Mark's behaviors which gave reasons
for his teacher's persistence in continuing communication
with his mother. Only in this way did Mark's teacher dis-
cover his father was dying of cancer at home due to the
low income status of the family.)

The following verbal and action responses were selected
from Mark's case study.

In the middle of October Mark participated and communicated
with his teacher for the first time that school year. He
stated aloud for the first time, "There is a man dying in
my house."

One day he threw himself on the floor and shouted, "I hate
you. I hate the trees. I hate the walls. I hate every-
thing." In October, he wrote, "I wish the world would die."

Mark was very sensitive to interpretation of music. One day
while listening he said, "It sounds like someone is being
punished. Maybe he is dying." In the middle of
govember, he said, "You know, my father is going to

1e."

Mark would lie under a table in the classroom with hands
folded. If the children asked him, "What are you doing?,“
he replied, "Playing dead."

Just before his father's death in December, he said,
"This man is dying at my house." (He had drawn a coffin
with a man in it.) He used the following sentence often:
''He doesn't look like anyone I know."

He drew a picture of a boy on a blanket on a hill. "My
family is having a picnic," he stated. Another child in
his class answered, "It looks like you are having a
picnic in the cemetery!" Mark retorted, "Where else
could I have a picnic with my Dad?"

In February, Mark exploded at recess, "My father is

dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's dead!" Later he said,
"He didn't perspire. He's dead--died--no more life."

Eark wrote several haikus about "baby bouncing on father's
nee."

#4

106

When Mark told about his family picture, he said in a
very matter-of—fact manner, "You all know my father
died, but this is my mother, brother Sid, brother Verne
and brother, Art.

One day in April, when the class was bursting out the
door for recess, Mark ran from one tree to another
hugging them and exclaiming, "Oh, here is a new bud.
Here are two buds. Here are two more." (The teacher
said, "It was as if Mark was accepting life after strug-
gling most of the year with death.") He was joyful.

During the school year small groups of children planned
funerals for bees, ants and bees and then carried through
on the funeral service.

All the children attended Mark's father's funeral or visited
the funeral parlor or visited the family when Mark's father
died.

Elementarylteacher

 

The children in the first grade became very excited when
the brochure announcing a memorial service and dedication
of a new playground for a former classmate was handed to
them. Some children acted puzzled while others became
sad as the children talked among themselves and with the
teacher. "I remember him." "He was killed." These were
comments made by children when the picture of their dead
classmate was discovered on the brochure.

When the fatal accident took place during their kinder-
garten year, these children were playing during recess

on the asphalt playground. The child who died had been
climbing on the only piece of equipment on the asphalt,

a dumpster used for school trash. It had tipped over on

the child. The boy picked himself off the ground. The
principal appeared and shook him. Minutes later he collapsed
and died on arrival to the hospital.

The parents were poor, but they took the money awarded
them due to the death of their child and funded a play-
ground for the school. The brochure circulating among
the children was the agenda for the dedication as well as
a memorial picture of him.

A memorial service was planned for the boy. The entire
school participated in the planning including staff,
parents and children. Some of the children helped adults
clean the playground. Others decorated the playground.
One class wrote words for a song which they sang. A first

#4

#7

#7

#8

#10

107

grade class wrote a poem which was used as the eulogy.
Every class participated in some way.

Elementary teacher

 

When a parent died, the class sent notes and pictures.

Elementary teacher

 

When the superintendent died, the group sent pictures and
notes to his family after his death. The children received
no communication from the family in response to their gifts.
A few of the children in her class were in the school choir.
The school choir sang for the funeral. Some children
attended the funeral. The school was closed for the day.

Elementary teacher

 

The teacher said to a child, "I bet you were absent be-
cause you went to the beach." The child replied with
great sadness, "My grandfather died." The teacher could
not remember his reply, but he guessed there was no reply
on his part.

Elementary teacher

 

When the children came to the classroom on Monday, many
were aware of their principal's death. He had been sick
during the preceding weeks. The group discussed it, but
they were very silent during much of the day. The next
day a girl was very upset over the death because of her
mother's reactions to the death. As she talked with other
children they became emotionally upset. The principal had
been well liked.

The class collected money and the school purchased flowers.
The children sent notes and pictures to the family. The
school was given the day off and some children visited

the funeral parlor while others attended the funeral.

A boy outside of her class questioned the teacher, l'Hey,
did you hear Mr. Keyes died?"

Elementaryxteacher

 

After her grandmother's funeral the child returned to
preschool. ”How was your day yesterday?" the teacher
asked her. "I played," she replied.

Although she never mentioned the funeral or her grand-
mother, she was very sad much of the time and moped

#11

#13

108

around for many days after the funeral. This behavior
was very unlike her. The children and her teacher would
bring her into the play situation, but she would return
to a passive state during the next few minutes.

Elementary teacher

 

"My grandmother died," said a child. The child was not
upset, but the airplane trip was very exciting and impor-
tant to her. She hopped around in a very excited manner
as she was telling other children.

Elementary teacher

The third grade teacher was teaching one day and the next
day her death was announced. At least one-third of the
class had had this teacher during the past year. #13
Teacher thought the children would "hear the news better
from me rather than through the grapevine." The princi-
pal had told the teachers about the death at an emergency
staff meeting that morning.

While #13 Teacher was telling the children about the
death, her voice cracked and she started to cry. Two
children cried, too. There was some discussion, but

many of the children appeared undisturbed by the news.
They were so calm that their behavior upset the teacher.
One child asked, "Where did she die?" Later, the teacher
heard some children cried on the bus while talking about
it.

The children wrote notes for the teacher's family. A
couple of the children visited the funeral parlor to
view the body. Their teacher asked, "Did you feel sad?"
One child said, "She didn't look like that." The other
child said, "It was very scary."

One child in this group was a very smug, arrogant child.
After his third grade teacher died, he viewed her body

in the funeral parlor. For some time after this event

#13 Teacher noticed his behavior changed. He did not

act with smugness or arrogance. He told his teacher, "It
was kinda scary and spooky.“

Rick's aunt died during Thanksgiving vacation. His

aunt had lived with his family. Rick became withdrawn
more than he had been after the death of his dog in
September. His teacher was afraid to talk with him about
the death because of his deep depression. Rick was very

#15

#20

‘)fi ,, __ . .. . ”#7 I’C‘AV-‘A‘

 

109

conscientious so he became tense over his school work
which now was slipping in quality. When he did not get
his work handed in on time or did not understand the work,
he obviously became very depressed over it. He daydreamed
and his teacher gave him time for this personal activity.

One day the teacher kept Rick in the classroom during
recess time so he would finish his work. She put her arm
around him and said, "You are having a hard time lately,
aren't you?" Rick sobbed and sobbed. The teacher said,
"I never kept him in at recess again."

Rick experienced the following deaths in one school year:
his dog, the class hamster, his third grade teacher, his
aunt and his cat. After his cat died, he was sick for three
weeks, back for one week and then absent two more weeks.
When the social worker called on him, he asked her "I

wonder if I'll die?"

Secondary teacher

 

Eric's father died from cancer in the fall. During conver-
sations Eric would say often, "You know my father is dead."
None of the teachers could handle him. He acted up con-
stantly; walked on the tables, walked around the room when
the group was expected to be seated and he looked at any-
one's paper at any time. However, #15 Teacher was success-
ful in reaching the boy. She liked him very much.

One day she was in a neighboring classroom where the
teacher judged Eric as a "horrible kid.” This teacher saw
#15 Teacher speak to Eric and he responded in a sensitive
manner to her. "What did you do to get him to act that
way?" the teacher asked. #15 Teacher replied, "Put your
hand on his arm or shoulder, touch him and talk with him
so you get to know him. He is having a hard time because
of his father's death, I think." A short time later the
neighboring teacher told #15 Teacher, l'You were so right.
He is a terrific kid."

Secondary teacher

One of the boys in the English class came from a family
of five boys. His mother was dying of cancer. The
family was very open and strong in their unity. The
student talked of his mother's dying, and later, her
death, in a very open manner with other students and
with his English teacher who was his basketball coach as
well.

 

 

110

After the parent died, a few students asked for time to
discuss the death. The class collected money and purchased
flowers. Some of the students visited the family and
others attended the funeral.

The young person, whose mother died, addressed a school
assembly after the basketball team won the State champion-
ship. "I wish my mother were here to see this." (His
mother had attended all the games until she was unable to
make them.)

#21 Secondary_teacher

 

Two girls asked their home economics teacher, "How can we
help her?" Their friend's mother had died.

#25 Secondary teacher (involved two deaths of siblings)

 

Two girls had formed a relationship due to a common experi-

ence, the deaths of their siblings. One girl was obese

while the other girl was very slim. The slim girl had a

dominating mother. She called her mother a few times

every day during school for a long period after her

brother's death. ikn~father could not understand her fre-

quent tears.

Notes were found planted in their books by the teacher.

”I'm glad your brother died. You are too skinny." "Well,

ditto. You are too FAT."

There were sixteen combinations of verbal and non-verbal
responses by students reported by the teachers. Elementary teachers
cited eleven responses while secondary teachers identified five
student reactions. The student responses were connected with the
following categories of death experiences: six parent deaths, two
sibling deaths, four deaths of relatives and three deaths of
teachers and supportive staff members. Fourteen teachers were
responsible for reporting sixteen death experiences.

In eight of the observations the teachers observed students
only and/or listened to the students; four of these observations were

from elementary teachers and four were secondary teachers. The

 

' ’1. _".\2v.r.w-._. _. 7 . . . . , a _ _ . .

111

teachers, in the remaining eight observations, observed, listened,
and responded to their students by providing opportunities for self-
expression about their death experiences. One secondary teacher
and seven elementary teachers structured such a framework for their
students.

The teachers described very noticeable behavioral changes
in one student, a small group of students, or in the class as a
direct result of the death experience. A few selected behavioral
changes are: depression, aggressive behavior, acting out, excessive
talking, and a change in the quality of academic work. Such
behavioral changes were described in ten of the sixteen combination
student responses; eight involved elementary students and two
involved secondary students.
Unknown Responses
Reported by Teachers

The unknown responses for elementary students numbered seven.

#2 Elementary teacher

 

The death of a relative was explained by the note sent by
the parent which explained her child's absence.

#5 Elementary teacher

 

The teacher knew a grandparent died, but she remembered
nothing about the response of the student.

#6 Elementary teacher

 

A sister of a student in this classroom was killed in a
car accident. The teacher only remembered the lack of
response from the other children regarding the death.

The teacher did not go to the funeral because it would
have been "too much of an emotional strain." The teacher
stated, "I use an affective education kit so I am accus-
tomed to dealing with feelings."

#7

#9

#9

#13

with no

#15

#16

112

Teacher

The math teacher in the building was killed in a car acci-
dent. The teacher did not mention the death to the chil-
dren in his class. He did hear the children speak of the
death, however.

Elementary teacher

 

A student's sister was killed when she was crossing the
street near school. Some of the children in the school
saw the accident.

Elementary teacher

 

The three-year-old brother of a second grade student died
in an accident. He climbed on a gas tank, became tangled
in a rope, and strangled. #9 Teacher heard about this
death experience through the child's teacher in the lounge.

Elementary teacher

 

Rick's mother had terminal cancer, but Rick had not been
told in June when school ended for the year.

Secondary teachers reported three human death experiences
student responses.

Secondary teacher

 

This teacher first met this girl in her sophomore year.

She had a muscular disease. When a sophomore she walked
through the halls hanging to the walls. Her speech was
affected and she wrote with great difficulty. Her writing
was like a very small child's handwriting. When a junior
she was in a wheelchair. Then, she had an operation on her
tendons so she could walk. However, she couldn't manage

it so she went back to the wheelchair. She was very

active in Wheelchair Olympics and in Easter Seals. Although
she was dying, she was very accepting, open and realistic
about her condition. The teacher did not report any inter-
action with the student or any specific observations of
interaction between the girl and classmates.

Secondary teacher

 

A student was punished with the assignment of more practice
in playing his band instrument after everyone had finished
and left the school. While alone in the bandroom, he hung
himself. The family told the school, "Never call us again."

113

#23 Secondary teacher

A student in the school took an overdose of a drug and died

as a result. When the class discussed the book, Go Ask

Alice (a book about a teenager addicted to drugs), no one

mentioned this death.

There was a total of ten unknown responses by young persons
to their death experiences. The elementary teacher reported seven
human deaths with unknown responses while the secondary teachers
cited three human death experiences with unknown responses. Six of
the death experiences centered on young people; five were students
and one was a sibling of a student. The remaining five death
experiences included two close relatives, one parent and one

teacher. Six of the deaths were a result of accidents; three car

accidents, two hangings, and one death by a drug overdose.

Awareness of Human
Death Experiences

 

 

There was a total of thirty-eight death experiences reported
by the interviewed teachers. Twenty-three death experiences were
observed in the elementary group of students: five involved young
people, five involved parents, eight involved close relatives, one
involved a neighbor and four involved adults on the school staff.
From the secondary group of students fifteen death experiences were
identified: six involved young persons, seven involved parents,
one involved a stranger, and one involved an adult on the school
staff.

The data indicate the total number of students' responses

to experiences with human deaths, as reported by teachers, totals

114

twenty-eight with ten unknown responses. There were sixteen
responses from elementary students: one non-verbal response, four
verbal responses, eleven responses which combined verbal and non-
verbal responses and seven unknown responses. Secondary teachers
identified a total of twelve responses by their students. There
were four non-verbal responses, three verbal responses, five
responses which combined verbal and non-verbal responses and three
unknown responses (see Table 2).

The causes of the deaths, with numerical count, experienced
by the students are listed below: two suicides, seven cancer, one
heart attack, two terminal diseases (one Hodgkins disease and one
muscular disease), seven accidents (one drug overdose, one gunshot,
one burned, three car, two hangings, one crushed) and nineteen
unknown causes of death. A minimum of ten deaths were sudden and
unexpected.

Six of the accidental deaths were grouped in the unknown
category of student responses. There were no initiations of inter-
action described by the teachers in their student responses for thirty-
six of the death experiences. The two examples of discussion ini-
tiated by teachers are: a teacher discussed the death of a colleague
with her class while another teacher told a child, "I'm sorry about
your father's death."

Fourteen of the student responses included behavioral
changes by the student/students or the class. Five secondary
teachers noted changes in behavior and nine elementary teachers

identified behavioral changes in their students. The behavioral

 

 

115

changes were numerous and varied. The learning atmosphere of the
class was affected often. A list of words and phrases used by
teachers in their description of student behavior following the

death experience is included below:

depression violent quality of academic work
fear reflective fell

excited shouted lack of participation
angry joyful talking about death,
distant rebellious talking excessively
passive non-verbal no interaction

scared preoccupied interaction stopped
aggressive silent repetitious behavior

sad delinquent changed roles

tense withdrew poor school attendance
puzzled hit work not done on time
tears threw failure to understand
acting out tore instructions

sick drew failure to understand
daydreamed wrote how to do the work
sobbing sensitive st0pped talking

crying exploded assignments not begun
blossomed accepting assignments not finished

For thirteen of the death experiences teachers provided
' opportunities for the expression of feelings or thoughts by stu-
dents; four were secondary teachers and nine were elementary
teachers.

The range of young persons' responses to human death experi-
ences varied from highly emotional, such as "acting out" in school
with great anger, to responses which produced non-emotional, matter-
of-fact action, such as flushing dead fish down the toilet. The
human relationships differed greatly among the death experiences
from a stranger to a close relative, from a parent to a teacher,

and from a classmate to a sibling. The sub-totals of the students'

 

116

experiences with human death, presented in Table 3, show thirteen

possible categories of human relationships.

Summary of the Findings

 

The total number of students' death experiences cited by the
interviewed teachers was sixty—nine; there were thirty-one non-human
deaths reported and thirty-eight human deaths. Twenty-six teachers
reported fifty-one student responses to these sixty-nine death
experiences, with eighteen unknown responses.

Elementary teachers identified forty-seven death experiences,
with thirty-five student responses and twelve unknown responses.
Secondary teachers reported twenty-two students' death experiences
with sixteen student responses and six unknown responses.

Twenty-seven student responses indicated behavioral changes
by the students after experiencing death. Eighteen elementary
teachers and nine secondary teachers cited behavioral change by
the students. These behavioral changes varied greatly; the class-
room learning atmosphere was influenced often by the students'
reactions to the death experiences.

Use of Teacher Awareness of
StudentsTTExperiences with Death

 

 

If teachers are aware, do they use this awareness within the
school community? The data relevant to this question were analyzed
along two dimensions: curriculum uses and consultative uses of
the students' experiences with death. Data for the dimension of

curriculum uses was organized further into three categories: use of

117

verbal interaction, use of class-planned curriculum, and use of
teacher-planned curriculum. Data for the dimension of consultative
uses was sub-divided into three categories: consultation requested,
consultation offered, and consultation given. All interview guides
were reviewed and uses of teacher awareness were identified.

The teachers' observations of their own responses, and
their students' response to the young people's encounters with
death are grouped in the above mentioned categories. The quantity,
quality and depth of the students' and teachers' responses are
presented. The differences in the uses of awareness between
teachers of children and teachers of adolescents will be addressed
in the presentation and discussion of the data.

Student Responses From
Teachersr'Use of Curriculum

 

 

Responses of Verbal Interaction

Interactions within the school community which resulted in
verbal interactions, centered on the students' experiences with
death, are reported in Table 4. No attempt was made by the re-
searcher to coordinate the numbers of deaths and the numbers of
interactions reported by interviewed teachers.

Data relevant to this exploratory question were organized
in two broad categories: student-initiated interactions and
teacher-initiated interactions. In the teacher-initiated category
the data was sub-divided into teacher-initiated with students and

teacher-initiated with adults in the school community.

118

The groupings within the student-initiated category are:
student to teacher, student to small peer group, student to class,
and student to adults in the school community. Teacher-initiated
interactions with students were organized further into three sub-
divisions: teacher to student, teacher to small group of students,
and teacher to class. The data for the category, teacher-initiated
with adults was sub-divided into three categories: teacher to
parent, teacher to school personnel, teacher to staff (at staff
meeting).

Significant differences in two major areas of the reported
interactions were found: student/teacher initiation of verbal inter-
actions and the elementary and secondary division's totals and per-
centages of interactions (see Table 4).

Although there is a small difference of ten percent between
. the interactions initiated by students (55%) and teachers (45%),
closer examination reveals a more significant difference. Twelve
percent of interactions were initiated by teachers with students
and thirty-three percent of the interactions were initiated by
teachers with adults in the school community. .

Sixty-two percent of the interactions occurred in the
classroom setting and thirty-eight percent took place within the
school community, but outside the classroom. Sixty-six inter-
actions took place within the classroom; fifty-three were student-
initiated and thirteen were teacher initiated. Therefore, students

initiated eighty percent of the interactions within the classroom

119

setting while teachers initiated twenty percent. Outside the class-
room teachers initiated thirty-three percent of the interactions and
students initiated six percent.

Further examination indicates noticeable differences
between the elementary and secondary divisions. Seventy percent of
the interactions were reported by elementary teachers and thirty
percent of the interactions by secondary teachers. There were one
hundred and seven interactions observed by teachers; elementary
teachers reported seventy-five interactions and secondary teachers
identified thirty-two exchanges.

Forty-two percent of the student-initiated interactions
were begun by elementary students and fourteen percent were begun
by secondary students. Within each of the subdivisions of the
student-initiated category the elementary students initiated
significantly more than did the secondary students. Sixteen percent
of the interactions were addressed to the teachers by elementary
students while secondary students initiated with their teachers
in four percent of the interactions.

The category of teacher-initiated with students revealed
the least percentage difference between elementary and secondary
teachers. In the subdivision, teacher to class, the elementary
teachers initiated four percent of the interactions while secondary
teachers initiated in one percent of the interactions. In the
other subdivisions the elementary and secondary teachers showed

no differences.

 

120

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121

In all the subdivisions of the category, teacher-initiated
with adults within the school community elementary teachers showed
more initiation than did secondary teachers; elementary teachers
initiated in twenty—nine percent of the interactions and secondary
teachers initiated in sixteen percent of the exchanges.

The differences, which have been discussed in the two major
areas of student/teacher initiation and elementary/secondary divi-
sional totals and percentages, are significant. These differences
will be discussed further in the next chapter.

Responses From Class
Planned Curriculum

#1 Elementary teacher

 

After Anita's father committed suicide, her class collected
money for a plant which was sent to her.

#3 Elementary teacher

 

In school Mark's behavior was violent so the teacher began
planning for Mark's anger. She also requested suggestions
from the children for equipment which helped them with anger
and aggression. She brought in a Bozo punching clown; three
80205 were demolished by this class during the year. Bean-
bags and a wastebasket were substituted for the chalk and
erasers thrown by Mark. Some days wood, hammer and nails
were brought for Mark to pound; often he pounded nails by
the dozens into both sides of the wood. Other children
used these materials, too. Art materials were available

at all times for Mark and the other children. The teacher
and Mark talked with each other frequently so he would

have the personal space and materials he needed for the
expression of his emotions. Mark was told by his teacher,
"You have enough to worry about right now. Don't worry
about your school work. Do it if you feel like it. If
you don't feel like doing it, leave it." Mark was allowed
much time for himself since the teacher assessed from her
observations and discussions with Mark that his greatest
need was gaining some control over his daily school life.
He had no control of anything else in his life. Many times

#U

#3

#4

#4

#7

#8

#13

#13

122

Mark would lie under a table for long periods of time.

If the children asked him what he was doing, he would
answer, "I am playing dead." During recess Mark would spend
a great deal of time lying on the grass looking at the sky.

Elementary teacher

 

Many of the children planned funerals for dead mice, bees,
and ants with poems, songs and burial chants created by
them. The teacher thought the funerals became humorous
because of the number and the types of dead things buried.

Elementary teacher

 

When a parent of a classmate died, the children sent pic-
tures with notes to the family.

Elementary teacher

 

The children constantly checked the plans for the new play-
ground which had been given by the dead child's parents
with the money awarded them because of the death of their
child. Some children wrote poems as a eulogy. Others
wrote words for a song. The playground was decorated by
children and the building was cleaned by students. Staff,
parents and children cooperated in planning this memorial
service and preparing for it.

Elementary teacher

 

When the superintendent of schools was terminally ill, the
class drew pictures with notes for him. The children
received no communication in return. Later, when the super-
intendent died, the class decided to send notes again.

Elementary teacher

 

The class gave money when the principal died and the school
purchased flowers.

Elementary teacher

 

Many of the children had had the third grade teacher who
died. The class sent pictures and notes to her family.
Two children visited the funeral parlor.

Elementaryxteacher

 

When the class hamster died, the teacher said, "We can get
a new hamster." The class then talked about a new hamster

123

but they never did discuss the death of the hamster.

"I don't know why I didn't talk to them about it," said
the teacher. After the planning the class did purchase
a new hamster.

#20 Secondary teacher

 

The day after the death of the mother of a classmate, one

student on entering the English class asked the teacher for

a discussion time with the class. He wanted the group to

respond in some way to this death since many of the students

had spent time in this woman's home. The family had been
very open about her terminal illness and the high school

age sons had discussed openly her terminal condition with

their teachers and friends. The students made a card,

signed it and sent it. The discussion included the funeral
plans.: Many students in this class attended the funeral

or visited the funeral parlor or family of the deceased

at home.

Seven teachers reported ten student responses which resulted
from class-planned curriculum. Eight of these responses to class-
planned curriculum were in reaction to human deaths and two re-
sponses were centered on non-human deaths. In all of the ten
responses there is planning and action in reaction to the death, but
there is no discussion about the death itself, people's thoughts and
feelings about the death, or how the death affects them (see Table 5).

Nine of the ten student responses from class-planned curric-
ulum were cited by six elementary teachers. One secondary teacher
reported one student response which was class-planned on the request

of a student (see Table 5).

Responses From Teacher
Planned Curriculum

#3 Elementary teacher

 

Writing was suggested many times as an activity in this
classroom. The children kept journals. Mark wrote in

 

124

TABLE 5.--Teachers' Observations of Their Uses of Awareness for

Curriculum Planning.

 

 

 

Elementary Secondary
Total # Number % Number %

 

TOTAL number of

teachers reporting 14 12 2

Student Responses to:
Eliiicfilfig"ed 10 34.4 9 31.0 1 3.44
$53§2§315;a""ed 19 65.5 18 62.1 1 3.44

TOTAL for curriculum 29 100 O 27 93.1 2 5,39

USES

 

#3

#3

#3

October ”I wish the world would die." This line was written
in response to an assignment which read: Write a few lines
on the topic I'How you feel today?" Mark's sentence was the
:irst verbal response made about his reaction to his dying
ather.

Elementary teacher

 

Twice the class newspaper had items about death written by
the children.
“My father shot my puppy."
"My cat had kittens but my father put them in a bag and
they aren't kittens anymore."

Elementary teacher

 

When haiku was assigned, Mark sometimes wrote about his
father. One line of a poem which the teacher remembered
was about "baby bouncing on father's knee."

Elementary teacher

 

Music was used for listening and relaxation. Most of the
children moved freely to the music. Often the music was
played particularly for Mark's relaxation even though he
often responded only by blinking his eyelids. He inter-
preted music better than anyone according to his teacher.

#3

#3

#3

#3

#3

#3

#3

125

An example of his interpretation follows: "It sounds like
they are punishing someone. Maybe he is dying."

Elementary teacher

 

Art materials were provided for the group's use at all
times. The following examples of Mark's use of the mater-
ials were selected from Mark's case study, Appendix C.

In the middle of October Mark drew a picture of a big black
rock on top of a small stick figure.

Elementary teacher

 

In December Mark drew a coffin with a man in it.

Elementary teacher

 

After his father's death, Mark drew a skeleton figure in
a coffin.

Elementaryxteacher

 

At the end of January Mark drew a boy sitting by a brown
rock. Near the rock was a bud or little piece of grass.
His teacher wanted to keep it but Mark drew another pic-
ture for her. Mark's new picture was dominated by a hill
with three or four flowers in a bouquet near a blanket on
which sat a boy. Mark described this scene as the cemetery
where he was picnicking with his father.

Elementary teacher

 

The class had many fish which were kept as pets because the
teacher planned this as part of the science curriculum.
Eleven died during the year and they were used as fertilizer.

Elementary teacher

 

The children took responsibility for the bulletin boards in
this class. In the spring it was Mark's turn. He chose the
theme of "Smile" because "I think it's time to smile."

Three or four children volunteered their help to him.

Elementary teacher

 

The teacher planned a self-awareness unit in the spring.
This was suggested in the curriculum guide for the third
grade. However, the teacher chose it because of Mark's

struggle with the death of his father. She also thought
the class had shared deeply in Mark's experience.

#3

#4

#5

#11

126

The class drew pictures of their families. Mark drew his
mother, brothers and himself. When explaining his picture
to the class, he said, "You know my father died but here
are my mother, brothers and me."

During this unit the teacher felt Mark opened to the world
and to life again. It happened in an explosion of joy just
as his anger happened explosively at the beginning of the
school year. One day he went out to recess. He ran to a
tree, embraced it and shouted, "Oh, here are two new buds."
He threw his arms around the trees as if hugging them.

"Here are two more buds." From bush to tree he ran joyously
greeting spring and life.

Elementary teacher

 

At the end of the year Mark gave his teacher a picture of
a frog with a big grin. "It's been a hard year, but it's
been kind of a fun year, too. I guess teachers aren't so
bad."

Elementary teacher

 

The teacher had plants in the room which the children helped
tend. One day a parent discussed the life-death cycle with
the children which was sparked by the death of a plant.

Fish died during the year and this created interaction about
the life-death cycle between the teacher and students. The
teacher used the life-death cycle often in explaining death.
"We have a certain time here and then we die. Everyone

dies sometime and goes back to the ground like the plants
and fish."

Elementaryxteacher

 

The teacher read The Dead Bird to the class. They discussed
the book and the funerals which the children had planned for
dead birds in their daily lives. The teacher's awareness

of death as an educational tOpic had been a learning from
the previous year when a parent of a student in her class
had been electrocuted. While the teacher was attempting to
help her student, she became aware of death education.

 

Elementaryxteacher

 

The class cared for fish which the teacher had set up for
the children. When they died, some of the children told
their parents.

127

#12 Elementary teacher

 

This class wrote in journals each day as assigned by the
teacher. One child wrote "My grandmother died." The teacher
observed this child more closely.

#13 Elementary teacher

 

The life cycle of a salmon was studied during science. Rick,
who had had many experiences with death during the year, had
not talked about them. He had withdrawn from participation.
During this unit his teacher was surprised when she heard

him ask, "Where do they (the salmon) go to die?" The teacher
broadened the discussion so some of Rick's death experiences
with animals could be included.

#13 Elementary teacher

 

A hamster which was the class pet was injured. The teacher
took him out of the classroom setting when she noticed the
injury. She kept the pet home for five weeks and then he
died. She suggested the class buy a new hamster.

#15 Secondary teacher

A values clarification exercise was used. The students were

told: If you had ten minutes to save someone's life, what

would you do and who would you save to replenish your com-
munity after an A-bomb? A child, whose father had died of
cancer that year, was the only student to choose a middle
aged man and he argued at length for his choice. The
teacher said, "I thought he was saying "I would have saved
my father if I could have so I made certain he had time

for developing his points."

There were nineteen student responses which evolved from
teacher-planned curriculum. In eighteen of the curriculum situations
the students were allowed to integrate their death experiences into
the curriculum in an individualized manner. One teacher used her
awareness in planning the curriculum so the children were shielded
from participating in the illness and death of the class hamster.

In fourteen of the observations teachers provided curriculum

situations with materials, time, and freedom for self-expression by

128

the students. The curriculum plans, which drew responses from
students concerning their death experiences, were creative writing
with four reSponses (two from journals, one from poetry, and one
from writing for the class newspaper), music with one interpretive
response, art with seven visual responses and animal/plant care with
two responses.

The teachers used their awareness of their students' death
experiences in a more integrative, cognitive manner in four of the
teacher-planned curriculum incidents; as the planned lesson pro—
gressed, the teacher guided the integration of the students' death
experiences by incorporating the death experiences into the content
of the planned lesson. Two student responses evolved from science
lessons, one from a special studies lesson and one from a literature
lesson.

Six elementary teachers reported eighteen of the student
responses to teacher-planned curriculum and one secondary teacher
identified one student response. One elementary teacher was respon-
sible for twelve of the eighteen responses cited (see Table 5).
Responses from Teacher-

Planned Curriculum Involving
the Concept of Death

The citation of student responses to teacher-planned curricu-
lum by interviewed teachers, which involved the concept of death
rather than the students' death experiences, was fairly common.

The students' responses are given for the reader's review.

 

#13

#14

#15

129

Elementary teacher

 

From this activity some unexpected behavior evolved from a
student. For language arts the teacher at Thanksgiving
time asked the class to write from a turkey's perspective
on his feeling about Thanksgiving as a holiday. Rick
would not write. His resistance was strong. This beha-
vior surprised his teacher since he was a shy, withdrawn
boy who was cooperative usually. The teacher suggested
to Rick that he write on a topic of his choice. He never
did write the assignment. Then the teacher discovered
Rick's dog had died before Thanksgiving and this helped
her understand and accept his unusual behavior.

Secondary teacher

 

A routine part of the curriculum, taking attendance, brought
some unexpected news. The first day of the school year the

teacher was calling the roll. In response to the calling

of Frances' name, the students said, "She died this summer."
"Yah, her house burned up." "She died." "She burned up."

Teacher

This teacher had a mini-course called Hospital Center. She
had been a nurse's aide in pediatrics in past years. Stu-
dents always were full of questions for her.

"Have you ever seen a dead person?"

"Have you seen someone die?"

"00 they go ah-a-a (gasping sound with hand at throat)?"

"How does the body act?"

"I bet they are cold and stiff."

"Did you ever see the doctors cut them open?"
Medical students from M.S.U. worked with #3 Teacher's class.
They were delighted to find students could work through their
fears and learn about the body at the same time.

This discussion of a cow's head and organs developed from a
conversation between the teacher and a student. The topic
discussed was the chewing of a cow's cud and the digestion
process. The teacher asked the student if he'd like to
dissect a cow's stomach so he could understand the process.
He was enthusiastic and then offered his mother as "picker
upper" of the cow's head and organs from the slaughter
house. Class discussion followed about the business of a
slaughter house and how the cows are killed. The parent did
bring the head and organs of the cow so the animal organs
could be compared with human organs. Double stomachs were
discussed. Some students refused to stay in the room for
the dissection so they were given permission to stay in an

#16

#16

#16

#18

130

empty room next door. By the end of the period all the
students came back to the dissection. However, some stu-
dents stayed on the fringe of the group. Many students
would not accept the fact that our stomachs had hairs like
the cow's stomach. "We'd throw up if our stomachs were
that dirty." The teacher kiddingly said, "Boy, they didn't
leave any meat on this cow. They sent it all to MacDonald's.
Students were horrified.

"What do you mean? That doesn't go to MacDonald's." The
teacher told them the meat was sent to a place to be cut up
into steaks, roasts, and hamburg, but the students could not
hear this. "No, no, no! Hamburg isn't made from dead cow.“
They were very upset. Many students repeated these state-
ments over and over. They could not accept the connection
of dead cows and the meat eaten by them. Later in the

same day the principal came into the class. He made a
similar comment. "All steaks and hamburgs were taken from
this cow." The students repeated the same performance and
conversation which they had gone through earlier. "It was
if they had never heard the topic discussed," said the
teacher.

Secondary teacher

 

The poem, "Death of a Hired Hand," was used for discussion
preceding the assignment in art class. The students were
asked to illustrate the poem; only a few drew the hired
hand as dead.

Secondary teacher

 

An episode from Crime and Punishment was used before the
art assignment. It was a hideous description of a man
beating a horse and chopping off his head. The students
were requested to draw their view of this episode. Some
drew happy horses. All figures were smiling - people,
horses, everyone.

 

Secondary teacher

 

The group discussed old age and dying. They were asked to
draw pictures of someone old which would show how they felt
about older people. Most of the youth felt repulsed by
elderly people and their drawings showed this repulsion.

Secondary teacher

 

The SCIS program was used by this teacher. Crickets were
studied for the concept of the birth/death cycle. It was
planned that some crickets would die. Two different

131

environments were set up for guppies; a healthy environ-
ment and a stagnant, unhealthy environment. Again, it
was planned that some guppies would die. The teacher had
not given any thought to the program possibly offending
any student's values toward life and death.

#19 Secondary teacher

 

The novel, On the Sidewalk Bleeding, was read and discussed.
It concerned gang killing. The young people involved in
the discourse were urban.

 

#20 Secondary teacher

 

The topic of death was discussed in this classroom as it
came up in the subject matter. The Jam, a novel which
included some material with death, was discussed. Personal
experiences of death had not been related to the discussion
of death in the literature.

#23 Secondaryxteacher

 

While rewinding the film, Bartlb , a student asked "Is he
dead?" A reply from a student was "Sure he's dead."

Another comment was "I don't think he was." Five out of

the thirty knew he was dead when a count was taken after

the teacher presented the questions of "Who thinks he was
dead?" and "Who thinks he was not?" the discussion was very
heated. Some of the students were adamant about their
opinions.

There were ten observations cited by eight teachers of
teacher-planned curriculum, which centered on the concept of death
rather than the students' death experiences. Secondary teachers
reported nine of these observations and an elementary teacher
reported one in which she gained some insight into a student's
behavioral change.

Teachers' Uses of Awareness
in Planning CurricuTum

 

 

Examination of the data for verbal interactions indicates

one-hundred and seven discussions were cited by twenty-six teachers.

132

Seventy-five of these interactions were identified by elementary
teachers and thirty-two verbal exchanges were cited by secondary
teachers. Fifty-nine of the interactions were initiated by students.
Forty-eight interactions were initiated by teachers; thirteen inter-
actions were with students and thirty-five interactions were
initiated with adults (see Table 4).

There were fourteen teachers citing twenty-nine instances
of using their awareness of their students' death experiences in
developing curriculum. Ten of the student responses were in reaction
to class-planned curriculum and nineteen were in response to
teacher-planned curriculum; thirty—four percent of the teachers' uses
of curriculum were from class-planned curriculum and sixty-six
percent were from teacher-planned curriculum (see Table 5).

Ninety-three percent of the curriculum uses were developed
- by elementary teachers and seven percent by secondary teachers. In
the class-planned curriculum category elementary teachers accounted
for thirty-one percent of the class-planned curriculum uses and
secondary teachers accounted for three percent. Data for teacher-
planned curriculum uses reveals sixty-two percent of the responses
were cited by elementary teachers and three percent by secondary
teachers.

In two of the twenty-nine curriculum uses of students'
death experiences the student initiated the action and the teachers
responded to the student. Four observations indicated actual
awareness by the teachers in conjunction with the actions of helping

the students integrate the actual deaths in a cognitive manner.

 

 

133

Eight of the observations helped the students respond to the people
dealing with the deaths, such as the remaining members of the families.
In fifteen incidents the flexibility of the curriculum plans allowed
for the students' expression of their thoughts and feelings; some of
these concerns centered on death. These particular responses to
death through the medium of the curriculum provided the teachers with
information about the students' thoughts, feelings, skills, abilities,
and interests.

It was common for secondary teachers to integrate the
concept of death into their teaching, but the death experiences of
their students were not used often in their teacher-planned curricu-
lum or in class-planned curriculum. Elementary teachers incor-
porated the death experiences of their students more easily into
their teaching.

In total there were one-hundred thirty-six observations
made by twenty—six teachers of their uses of awareness in curricu-
lum planning concerning their students' death experiences; one-hundred
and seven verbal interactions, ten class-planned curriculum uses and
nineteen teacher-planned curriculum uses (see Table 4 and Table 5).

Teachers' Observations of
Consultative Uses

 

Consultations Requested
by Teachers

#1 Elementary teacher

When an alcoholic parent committed suicide, the teacher
went to the counselor to tell her of the suicide. In
her conversation she asked for ways of helping Anita.

 

 

134

"You are doing all you can,I answered the counselor. The
counselor never saw the child. (The counselor was respon-
sible for 700 students.) The counselor suggested, "If she
wants to see me, send her in to me.” As a result of this
conversation the teacher asked Anita if she would like a
visit with the counselor. "No," was the reply.

#3 Elementary teacher

In September the teacher requested help for Mark from the
county intermediate school district social worker. The
social worker sent a letter stating she would talk with
the teacher in October. She came in December. It was

her first year as a social worker and she had had no
experience in helping people cope with death. "If you
find out anything, let me know because I'm very interested,"
she replied. In May she observed Mark for the first time.
The teacher reported that she, the class and Mark had
lived through the crisis by May and Mark had adjusted well.
The teacher did not need any help in May.

#3 Elementary teacher

In September when Mark was violent often, the teacher went
to the principal for help. His response to her request was
”Discipline should be handled in the classroom by the
teacher." When the teacher discovered Mark's father was
dying, she approached the principal again. His reply was
"Every time a tough situation comes up you can't pass the
buck." She never talked with him again about Mark.

#13 Elementary teacher

The teacher requested help from the social worker for Rick.
"I was giving her all the help," the teacher reported.

"She did tell me about Rick's father dropping out of high
school and putting pressure on Rick," the teacher continued.
The social worker called on Rick at home when he was out of
school for three weeks.

#25 Secondary teacher

This teacher with others in a team situation worked with

the counselor on a nine-week psychology course. Because of
some death experiences the teachers requested the counselor's
help in planning for discussion of the fear of death. Hypo—
thetical situations of death such as death of a pet or
grandparent were set up. The counselor acted as a small
group leader along with other teachers.

135

fRnn~teachersidentified five requests for help from support-
ive staff. Four requests by elementary teachers centered on assist-
ance for helping their students deal with a death experience; no
help was received. A secondary teacher requested help, and received
it, from the counselor for planning discussion groups which would
deal with fear of death; the teacher had heard students talking
about death experiences with panic (see Table 6).
Consultation Offered
to Teachers

The twenty-six interviewed teachers identified no offers of
consultation from supportive staff or from others within the school
community. One incident was reported which gave strong evidence
of a teacher's need for support when one of her students was
demanding strong support. The teacher solicited support from an
Intermediate School District social worker, her principal, and a
teaching colleague, but she was not successful. Her only support
came from the speech therapist who requested consultation with
#3 Elementary teacher. In collaborating about two boys from the same
family #3 Teacher and the speech therapist formed their own fragile
and limited support system.

#3 Elementary teacher

 

The teacher approached the principal for help with a boy
who was violent most of the time. ”Discipline begins in

the classroom," was his reply. A second approach was made
when the teacher discovered the boy's father was dying of
cancer in the home and the family had no economic, com-
munity, or personal resources for support. "When things get
tough, you can't pass the buck," the principal said. She
then tried contacting the Intermediate School District

social worker, but she received no help from her.
I'm interested.
was the social worker's response.

is my first year.

136

7.7.3 r‘. -.

"This
Let me know about it,”

The teacher tried collaborating with the teacher of Verne,
She discovered their philosophies of
Verne's teacher punished

Mark's brother.

education were totally different.

Verne for his "bad behavior."

Verne had speech

speech class. In desperation the speech therapist went
She wanted information

therapy.

He was acting violently in the

to #3 Teacher for consultation.
vior. In comparing notes, #3 Teacher
invited the speech therapist for observation of Mark and
the manner in which she was handling Mark's behavior.
their first meeting the two educators consulted with each

about Mark's beha

other often for the remainder of the year.

Relations with the staff deteriorated steadily for #3
Teacher. "The staff was so punitive in talking about
Mark and Verne that one day, I exploded.
I don't know how you can be

'I think you are

so inhuman.I I slammed the lounge door on the way out.
I acted just like Mark and Vernei

much after that.”
Mark.)

inhuman.

After

I said to them,

I didn't talk to anyone
(See Appendix C for the case study on

TABLE 6.-—Teachers Observations of Their Uses of Awareness for

 

 

 

Consultation.
Elementary Secondary
Total # A Number % Number %
Teacher Observations of
Consultation requested 5 26.3 4 21.0 1 5.2
Consultation offered 0 00.0 0 00.0 0 0.0
Consultation given 14 73.6 9 47.3 5 26.3
EOTAL for Consultation 19 100.0 13 68.4 6 31.5
ses
TOTAL Number of Teachers 14 9 5

Reporting

 

137

Consultation Given
by Teachers

#3

#3

#4

#4

#8

Elementary teacher

 

Mark's brother, Verne, was in speech therapy. He was as
troubled as Mark over his father's illness and impending
death. He was violent also. The speech therapist was
searching for help with him so she and Teacher #3 talked
often about the two boys and their family. It was agreed
between them that the speech therapist would observe Mark
and his teacher in order to view the manner in which
Teacher #3 related to Mark. The speech therapist hoped for
new, more successful ways of working with Verne.

Elementary teacher

 

Mark's mother talked with the teacher often about her family
problems. She particularly spoke of her teenage sons who
were smoking "pot." Her sons were into other troubles.
Evidently she felt her control of them was gone. The

county mental health agency was recommended by the teacher
since the family had little money. Toward the end of the
father's illness, one of the teenage sons went to a therapist
with this agency.

Elementary teacher

 

The entire staff and the parents of the dead child planned
a memorial service for the kindergarten child who had been
fatally injured on the playground the previous school year.
"Our staff was very close and planned everything together,"
said the teacher.

Elementary teacher

 

When a parent died, the staff talked about the death and
made a group decision about the staff's response to the
family. "Whenever a parent died, we talked about it and
responded as a group," reported the teacher.

Elementary teacher

 

When the principal died, it was discussed at the lunchtime
staff meeting. The teacher said, "There was no point in
asking the acting principal for help because this was his
first experience with death which was close to him. He kept
saying, 'This has never happened to me before.‘ He talked
about it a lot. The staff processed it a great deal. We
helped each other."

 

#10

#13

#13

#15

#15

#16

#21

138

Elementary teacher

 

A parent asked the teacher, "Shall I let her (four-year-old
daughter) go to the funeral?" ''Yes, by all means!" replied
the teacher.

Elementary'teaCher

 

It was suggested to Rick's mother that she consult her
minister about helping Rick ease his tension.

When the third grade teacher died, one parent v0iced an
objection about the teacher working so long when she had
terminal cancer. (She was working one day and died during
the night.) The teacher said, "Children must face this
sometime so that is the good part of it."

Elementaryxteacher

 

When the third grade teacher died, #13 Teacher talked with
many of the staff members about the death, including

teachers, principal and janitor. The staff met so a deci-
sion could be made about the staff's action with the third
grade teacher's family and the staff's remembrance of her.

Secondary teacher

 

The teacher went to the counselor when she learned a boy's
father had died. The counselor knew. This boy had diffi-
culty in adjusting to group work in all his classes. As
the year progressed the teacher worked very successfully
with Eric. The counselor often sent teachers to Teacher #2
for help in relating to Eric.

Secondary teacher

 

After a student's father died, her mother asked the teacher
if she would recommend camp for her son in the summer. The
teacher suggested camp unless the youth was opposed to it.

Secondary teacher

 

The art teacher discovered from one of her students that his
father had died. She shared her information about the stu-
dent with the counselor.

Secondary teacher

 

"When the parent of one of my students died, we (teachers)
talked among ourselves and helped each other. Our prin-
cipal was the hyperactive type and he wasn't too helpful
with anything like this."

139

#25 Secondary teacher

 

After a girl's five-year-old sibling died, the girl called
her mother a few times each day. The teacher talked with
the parent about this and the effect on her daughter.

There were fourteen cited incidents where teachers were
giving consultative support to people within the school community.
Consultative support was given to parents in eight observations, to
supportive staff in two observations and to staff members or their
families in four observations.

Five elementary teachers reported nine of the observations
concerning their consultative support while one secondary teacher
cited five observations. Two instances of consultative support for

parents were identified by secondary teachers and six incidents

involving parents were cited by elementary teachers.

Teachers' Uses of Consultation

 

Examination of the data indicates elementary teachers used
consultation thirteen times as a result of their students' death
experiences while secondary teachers used consultation six times.
Sixty-eight percent of the consultative uses were cited by elemen-
tary teachers and thirty-two percent by secondary teachers.

The data reveal consultation given was used in seventy-four
percent of the observations cited; consultation requested was used
in twenty-six percent of incidents identified. There were no
identifications made of consultation offered by supportive staff.

In four of the five requests for consultation teachers

received no help; in one instance the teacher felt reprimanded for

140

asking which made the situation more emotionally difficult for her.
Parents received the majority of consultation given by teachers to
members in the school community.

Nineteen consultative uses were identified by fourteen
teachers. Nine elementary teachers cited observations and five
secondary teachers reported incidents.

Elementary teachers used consultation more than did secon-
dary teachers. In the area of consultation offered, the elementary
and secondary teachers gave the same data revealing no offers of
support from supportive staff. The data for consultation given was
the category where elementary and secondary teachers were the

closest (see Table 6).

Summary of the Findings

 

Teachers used their awareness of their students' death
experiences in one-hundred and fifty-five observations of their
interactions, curriculum planning, and consultation with their
' students and others in their school communities. One-hundred and
fifteen of the observations were cited by elementary teachers and
forty of the responses were reported by secondary teachers.

Seventy percent of the verbal interactions were identified
by elementary teachers and thirty percent by secondary teachers.
Elementary teachers were responsible for eighty-three percent of the
total curriculum and consultative uses while secondary teachers
identified seventeen percent of these uses. In every category and
sub-category of curriculum and consultative uses elementary teachers

were represented more noticeably than secondary teachers.

141

Summar

In this chapter the results obtained from the analysis of
the data for each of the two exploratory questions were presented.
The sample of teachers were aware noticeably of their students'
encounters with death. This awareness by teachers was used to some
degree in verbal interactions with students, in curriculum planning,
and in consultation.

Significant differences were found between teachers of
children and teachers of adolescents; elementary teachers were more
aware of their students' experiences with death, and acted upon this
awareness, more often than did teachers of adolescents. In Chapter
Five the findings and recommendations for program development and

research are presented.

 

For everything there is a season and a time to every

purpose under heaven:

a

D)

Q)

Q)

Q)

93

stones

D

Q)

Q)

9)

9.1

time to be born and a time to die;

time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
time to kill, and a time to heal;

time to weep, and a time to laugh;

time to mourn and a time to dance;

time to cast away stones, and a time to gather
together;

time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
time to seek, and a time to lose;

time to keep, and a time to cast away;

time to love, and a time to hate;

time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1—8

"Turn,

Turn, Turn” - recorded by Pete Seeger

142

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, REFLECTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

In this chapter, a summary of the findings, reflections on
the research and recommendations for program development and research
are discussed. In addition, observations on the interviews are pre-

sented and discussed.

Summar

The subject of this thesis has been teachers' awareness,
and use of awareness, of their students' death experiences, examined
through interviews with twenty-six elementary and secondary teachers
attending a state university. The reported teachers' observations
of their students' death experiences, and their self-perceptions,
were studied in an effort to determine teachers' awareness, their use
of awareness in verbal interaction, curriculum planning, and con-
sultation and further, the differences, if any, between teachers of
children and teachers of adolescents.

Awareness, and use of awareness, was evident by the quantity,
quality and depth of the teachers' observations. A considerable
degree of teacher awareness was revealed by the quantity of deaths
reported (69), by twenty-five of the twenty-six interviewed teachers,
and the number (51) of student responses to the death experiences.

In addition, qualitative aspects were cited which denoted more

143

144

specific awarenesses, such as: relationship of the student to

the dead human or non-human, the cause of death, and the changes in
the behavior of the student, class, or school community caused by
the death experience. Four teachers' observations indicated a
deeper awareness, reflecting more sensitivity, concerning the effect
of the death experience upon individual students, the class and the
school community.

If teachers are aware, do they use this awareness in the
school community? Teachers used their awareness to some degree in
verbal interactions, curriculum planning, and consultation with
other staff and parents. This use of awareness was supported by a
total of 155 teachers' observations in these three categories.
Further examination of the research for this exploratory question
revealed qualitative information related to the nature and use of
- their observations, which modifies the immediate impression created
by the quantitative results.

Consultative uses furnished little support for teachers in
their day-to-day classroom living with students who were dealing
with death. In four of five requests for consultation, teachers
were confronted by supportive staff who were inexperienced,
unaware of the effects of death on students, or attitudinally nega-
tive about the request of help from a teaching professional. No
supportive staff offered help due to information or observation of
a student's or teacher's situation, but teachers often gave support

to other adults in the school community.

145

Although most teachers were noticeably aware of their
students' death experiences, and used this awareness to a limited
degree, significant differences surfaced in this research between
elementary and secondary teachers. If the quantitative aspects
of the data are reviewed, elementary teachers show considerably more
awareness than secondary teachers in the following categories: the
number of deaths reported (both non-human and human death), the
number of reported student responses to these death experiences,
and the number of behavioral changes identified. Elementary
teachers used their awareness to a greater degree than secondary
teachers in the three major categories, and in the sub-categories,
of verbal interaction, curriculum planning and consultation.

There also were qualitative differences between teachers
of children and teachers of adolescents. Elementary teachers
responded more to the personal and interpersonal aspects of the
student's death experience while secondary teachers reacted more
to the cognitive aspects of death. The integration of the student's
death experience through the utilization of a wholistic, develop-
mental approach was used more by elementary teachers. Secondary
teachers separated the cognitive, affective and psycho-motor domains
in their curriculum planning.

In verbal interaction the students initiated the exchange
most often. The teacher responded in a very limited manner in the
majority of observations; as a result of the limited interaction,

students had little chance for exploration of their experience

 

146

with death. Students were the innovators generally; they included
the topic of death in the curriculum.

Frequently, the teachers received responses from the students
about their death experiences through open-ended, flexible curricu-
lum plans; the teachers provided time, materials and a certain amount
of freedom for the sharing of the students' personal experiences and
for responses to the bereaved family. Teachers seldom used their
awareness in a focused, active manner for the guidance of their
students in exploring their feelings and/or clarifying their
thoughts about death.

Four teachers shared observations of their students and
selves which suggested much deeper use of awareness, and much
deeper awareness, than the other twenty-two teachers. The uses
made of their surface awareness served to deepen their awareness
of the student's or family's death experience. Each of these four
teachers used their awareness in methods which allowed for the
gathering of more information about the student's/family's feelings,
skills, and abilities. The newly collected information, then,
created newer and deeper awareness; the deeper awareness suggested
more uses.

Some of the methods used by these teachers were: closer
observation of the student and class; more sensitive interaction
with the student (in a one-on-one situation often); curriculum
planning which provided for acceptable outlets for the student's

thoughts and feelings, and for integration of these thoughts and

147

feelings into their life; requests for consultation; and the sharing
of their thoughts, feelings, and methods with other staff members.
Three of the four teachers with a deeper sense of aware-
ness were elementary teachers. All of these teachers were skilled
observers. Two elementary teachers and one secondary teacher used
their awareness in sensitive interactions with the students who
were experiencing a death. One elementary teacher and one secondary
teacher used complex, extended curriculum planning in response to
their students' experiences with death. The last elementary teacher
was deeply involved in a school community planning of a memorial
playground in memory of a child who was killed on the playground;

this memorial involved all the classes and all the children.

Reflections on the Research

 

What could account for such significant differences between
teachers of children and teachers of adolescents in their awareness
of their students' death experiences, and their uses of this aware-
ness? A variety of factors surface for consideration: the number
of students served per day, the time spent with students daily, the
structure of the day, the organization of the curriculum, opportuni-
ties for contact with parents, the developmental needs of the youth
served, and the expectations of the community for the teacher's
role and for curriculum content.

The visible organization of elementary and secondary schools
suggest vast differences immediately. An elementary teacher usually

works with 25-35 children who remain with her/him for the major

148

portion of each day for the entire school year. In contrast, the
secondary teacher works with 125-200 students, in groups of 25-40
adolescents, for one hour, possibly two hours, for a semester. The
smaller size of the elementary population, the elementary building,
and the elementary staff allow for much more interpersonal contact
between teachers, students and parents in a variety of situations.
Due to the factors mentioned in the paragraph above, secondary
teachers easily could see a majority of their students only once a
day during the scheduled classtime. The opportunities for observa-
tion outside of the classroom are much less for teachers of
adolescents than for teachers of children.

Due to the external organization of the school and school
day, the expectations of parents and community, and the age and
needs of the youth served, many elements of the curriculum are pre-
planned and set for the teacher. By the very nature of the elemen-
tary school, more choices are available for teachers of children than
for teachers of adolescents. Elementary teachers have more control
of their use of materials, space, groupings, and time in their
curriculum planning. Scheduling and assignment in secondary schools
generally structure the use of time, space, groupings, and materials
for secondary teachers; in turn, the structure narrows the choices
of certain teaching styles and limits curriculum planning.

A teacher of children may choose a focus on the class, a
small group, a child, the subject matter, or blend the focus in a
multitude of ways. The constant number of children, the duration

of time spent with the same children, the developmental tasks and

149

needs of students, and the involvement of parents provide more
opportunities for creative curriculum planning. With such planning
the child, classmates, and teacher are placed in a variety of
settings and groupings, both formal and informal within the class-
room and school community, in which exploration of learning can be
observed easily by the teacher.

By comparison, a teacher of adolescents is focused on sub-
ject matter by the nature of class scheduling, group assignments,
and parental and community expectations. It is impossible for a
secondary teacher to observe each assigned student in various
settings and groupings; with the lack of such information and inter-
action, the secondary student is not known personally by each teacher.
There is little parent involvement at the secondary school level
because of the developmental needs of both students and parents at
this time.

A blending of foci on each adolescent's total growth and
development with the emphasis on his/her cognitive learning is an
impossible task for the teacher; selective observation and inter-
personal involvement with a chosen few is more realistic. The only
secondary school where the blending of the foci is a realistic
choice for the teacher of adolescents is the middle school where
groupings, space and time have been used more creatively. Awareness,
and use of awareness, directed toward the clarification of the
concept of death rather than the clarification of personal thoughts

and feelings of a student or group of students about death

150

experiences, appears more manageable when considering the daily life
of a teacher of adolescents.

Awareness of the wholistic growth and development of the
young person, and the creative use of the teacher's awareness in
developing more learning opportunities for her/his students and
observational situations for self are nurtured more when the struc—
ture gives more freedom and choices. In the present study the
teachers with a more open framework for planning, the elementary
teachers, and individual teachers with more creative views of plan-
ning, were the most aware of their students' death experiences and
these teachers created the most opportunities for further learning
about the death experiences.

The foundation for teacher awareness of students' death
experiences, in the opinion of this researcher, is the observational
skill of teachers which is used as the teacher participates with
young people in their daily lives in the school community; in con-
junction with observational skill, the teacher must have self-
awareness as she/he interacts with the school community. In the
present study, the observational skills of elementary teachers and
secondary teachers differed widely; the consequence of more skilled
observation was more awareness, and use of awareness, by teachers of
children. Therefore, investigation of the teacher's use of observa-
tional skills appears valuable.

Observation is the teacher's tool for collecting information
about her/his students; then the teacher, an important adult in the

lives of youth, can give the students better guidance and learning

151

opportunities. This collection of information might include knowl-
edge of the following aspects of the young person's growth and
development in the intellectual, social, physical, and emotional
domains: present growth and needs; the student's special interests,
talents, and skills; their knowledge of self and interaction with
fellow students, class, school community and family; and the
family's needs and relationship to the community.

With the accumulation of information, the teacher can
respond to the student's needs and foster his/her growth. More
knowledge of the student allows for more sensitive interaction and
curriculum planning in the classroom because the interaction and
planning are based on group needs and individual needs. More
opportunities for closer observation are created also. The con-
sultation requested and given will be based on solid data. The
benefits of keen observation are more sensitive interaction between
student and teacher and more creative, interesting and informed
curriculum planning-

Direction for the teacher's growth of self-awareness, and
use of this awareness, can be provided by the same collected
information which helps the teacher respond to her/his students
more sensitively. If the teacher is not aware of self in relation-
ship to death, it is not possible for her/him to guide students to
self-awareness; denial or avoidance will result. In the present
research, the elementary teachers, who were more aware than
secondary teachers, cited the most examples of personal experiences

with death in their interviews. These data suggest that the teacher

 

152

who was exploring death in relationship to self may also have been
more observant and sensitive in relating to students who were
experiencing and exploring death.

The teacher must be aware of her/his own needs and limits
in responding to the topic of death and the needs of students.
One teacher may be capable of responding to the needs of the group
and the needs of individual students; yet another teacher may be
capable of responding to the group only. Since a teacher is respon-
sible for the mental health of the group, and not the mental health
of each individual child, the knowledge of needs and limits are very
important. The teacher's self-awareness also would dictate the type
of consultation for self, if any. Teachers need emotional support
and guidance in clarifying their feelings and thoughts about their
experiences with death in order to give support and guidance to
students in their care.

There were strong indications in the data that teachers
did not receive encouragement and support for clarifying their
feelings and thoughts concerning their death experiences from
supportive staff; the same reactions accompanied their requests for
help with their students. There were no offers of help or
cooperation from supportive staff. The few requests for consulta-
tion about students received no positive responses.

A most disturbing observation was the punitive attitude on
the part of the principal in response to the teacher's request for
help in dealing with the puzzling behavior of a student. This

teacher knew her limits and needs, but it hindered her professional

153

standing in the school community. In the experience of the re-
searcher, it is fairly common for educators to look upon requests
for help by teachers as an unprofessional attitude and a sign of
incompetence or weakness. The question arises: Where can a teacher
receive guidance and support so she/he can return the guidance and
support to students?

Evidence surfaced which revealed the young people's need for
emotional support and for opportunities which allowed the exploration
of their feelings and thoughts concerning their death experiences;
the most convincing data centered on the many behavioral changes by
students in response to their death experiences and the persistent
initiation of interaction by students with teachers regarding their
encounters with death. A young person seldom had a teacher engage
in a deep interaction in response to his/her initiation. The
behavioral changes brought observation, punishment, avoidance, and,
infrequently, a sensitive exchange between student and teacher. It
was more usual for a teacher to avoid grappling with a student's
feelings of anger or depression unless the behavior affected the
class very directly.

When the teacher mentioned previously received no help with
the disruptive student in her class, she used her own resources. She
proved to herself, and to the researcher, that curriculum planning
can be used very effectively in responding to the feelings and
thoughts of a student's deep concerns about a very personal, pain-

ful death experience. Since the curriculum is the major vehicle

 

 

 

154

for interaction with students for teachers, the exploration of using
curriculum planning in more depth bears serious consideration.

The limited data, or lack of data, suggested supportive
staff lacked awareness and knowledge about the effects of death on
people, youth and adults, and the learning possibilities surrounding
death experiences. How can a supportive staff person understand, and
accept the behavior of students and teachers dealing with death
experiences if he/she is not aware? If there is no awareness, then,
surely the supportive staff person cannot foster the growth and
development of students, teachers and self. The interdependence of
students, teachers and supportive staff makes awareness essential
for the adults in the school community concerning the effect of
death on the behavior of people and the learning possibilities
present. Educators are significant adults in the health care of
students.

The acceptance of educators into the mental health and
larger health care system is required if educators are to become
aware of the tremendous potential for mental health care and mental
health education. In the past educators have been excluded most
often when t0pics such as death, child abuse, sexuality, incest or
violence have been discussed by the community's professionals who
work with children. Social workers, doctors, lawyers, nurses,
ministers, psychologists and even police are grouped on panels for
presentations to professional and community groups. Inevitably the

professionals discuss "what the teachers should be doing"

 

155

and "what they would like from other health care professionals."
Participation in the interdisciplinary community of professionals
may reveal little awareness, and use of this awareness, with
youth's experiences with death in other institutional settings such

as the courts, hospitals, social service agencies.

Observations on the Interviews

 

The interest level shown by teachers during the interviews
was very high. This was evidenced by their behaviors; these beha-
viors included time given for the interviews, requests for exten-
sions of time, using the time as a learning opportunity, the high
desire to be helpful in the study, the emotional involvement evi-
denced by the sharing of personal information about their teaching
and family experiences, and their comments during the interviews.

The time given for the interview was a voluntary act by each
teacher so this was the first indication of interest. At the
start of the interview the interviewee was given a choice of the
class work or the interview. A person occasionally would request a
postponement of the interview because of particular interest in the
on-going work of the class. Such a request was honored. Although
the information within the confines of the study was shared often
in an hour by a teacher, the two hour limit for the interview was
used frequently for personal reasons.

During the interviews the helpfulness of the teachers was
evident. Frequently, a teacher remarked, "Call me if you would like

more information or discussion about the incidents I mentioned."

156

Or "Call me, if you want to talk about the death experiences which
happened a couple years ago?" "I wish I could give you more material.
It's too bad you can't use some death experiences from two or three
years ago." The cooperativeness of the teachers and the university
professors created an open learning environment which was an
indirect goal of the study.

The comments of the teachers, both personal and professional,
directed attention to the learning aspects of the interview. "I
never thought about this before." "This is very interesting."

"I'd like to learn more about this," ''I wish I could talk more with

you about this." "I never put all this together." "I never realized
how many death experiences my children had." "I wish I'd known about
this study before because I would have kept notes." "I'll be more

aware this year. I didn't realize growth and development (of children)
and the concept of death have any relationship." ”I really liked
this." "Do you think what I did with this child was right?“

The difficulty for teachers in fostering their professional
growth in the area of mental health sUrfaced during the interviews.
One teacher's remark illustrated this point: "I am interested in
working with children who have problems like this (death experiences).
The school psychologist can't give you any help because he has too
much to do. He's always testing. He tells you do this, but then
it doesn't work. You don't feel like you can go back if it doesn't
work and talk it over with him so you know what you can try next."

The death of a parent by electrocution plunged an elementary

teacher into the topic of death. Because of her feelings of

157

helplessness she tried learning about death. Although this death
experience had happened outside the framework of the study, her
learning from that year caused the inclusion of discussion and
literature centered on death in her curriculum planning for the time
framework of the exploratory study. When her teaching colleague's
husband died of a heart attack, this teacher recommended reading
material for her. She also used her knowledge gained from her
reading: much time was Spent with her colleague in listening to

her story about the death which she told repeatedly.

Professional skills and personal experiences overlapped
often. A fourth grade teacher related this observation of questions
asked by her four-year-old nephew as she was driving. She did not
include her answers. "Where do I go when I die?" "What happens
to my body?" "I won't die, will I?" "Will you die?" The four-year-
old's resolution was "Older people die - not me."

Personal experiences were drawn from childhood frequently.

”I was an altar boy so I had to attend and serve at many
funerals. I come from an Italian background. People got
hysterical and had to be pulled from the graveside. I saw
coffins lowered into the ground. After the people left, I
stayed with the priest. I didn't understand what was happen-
ing. I didn't think about it after though. It didn't bother
me. When my aunt died, it bothered me, I guess. My family
made an awful fuss. On holidays in particular. I'm Italian
and maybe that is why but you could feel it when you went in.
We got together on holidays. It was silent, but when my
uncle walked in, my grandmother and everyone got hysterical.
I didn't want to go and neither did any of the people my age.
It lasted a long time. At least a year or more."

Some personal experiences were current experiences. A number
of teachers realized their observations were personal ones, but they

continued eagerly. "I know this is not about my students, but . . .

158

and then would continue at length. A teacher spoke with tenderness
of her mother's tender, compassionate care for her dying grand-
mother, a bed-ridden invalid, who lived with her mother. "I know

I will care for my mother in the same way if she needs me because
she has given me such a wonderful model.“

The interviewee with the least apparent interest was the
school psychologist. This pilot study interview of ten minutes was the
shortest interview. The school psychologist appeared uncomfortable
with the topic. He took no initiative for sharing information
voluntarily. He waited for the posing of questions. "I do not
work directly with children so I don't have any material." (He was
in the Special Education Division of an Intermediate School District.)
This was the one interview which contained no incidents about death,
either professional or personal experiences. Since Earl Grollman
had discovered the lack of awareness among educational psychologists
on university faculties about death as a serious subject for study
by teachers, these observations were noted with interest.1

Differences between elementary and secondary teachers were
noticeable. Elementary teachers appeared more comfortable discus-
sing the topic of death than did secondary teachers. This was
evidenced by the inclusion of more personal experiences with death.
Comment was made by many of the elementary teachers that their
personal experiences had made them more alert. This alertness
evolved into closer and more skillful observation of the children.
Elementary teachers often became more aware of their students'

death experiences through interaction with staff, students

 

159

experiencing the death, or the families of the students. With the

combination of awareness, skillful observation, and interaction the
elementary teachers appeared more comfortable in handling the topic
of death with students and significant others.

Elementary teachers reported more interpersonal, integrated
examples than did secondary teachers. The school memorial service
for the kindergarten children and the therapeutic curriculum for
Mark during his tension-filled year were examples of such integra-
tive, interpersonal experiences. These observations were indicative
of the integration of the cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor
domains for young people by elementary teachers in their guidance
of the children's experiences with death. Art materials, music, play,
movement, paper, pencils and books were used.

Secondary teachers gave more examples of experiences with
death which developed from the content of the secondary course than
did elementary teachers. The cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor
areas of learning were very separate. There were no instances where
a secondary teacher incorporated the death of a person or pet into
the teacher-planned curriculum. Books, paper and pencils were the
materials used by secondary teachers with their students.

During the interviews secondary teachers often took more
time for perceiving the possible relationship between the death
experience and the change in the student's behavior following the
death experience. "Gosh, I wonder if the death of his parent had
anything to do with his delinquent behavior?" "Do you think his

poor grades are connected to this death?" "His acting-out behavior

 

160

started after his dad's death, I think. Does that have something
to do with his skipping school?" As the interview progressed
secondary teachers, as a group, became more aware. Elementary
teachers, as a group, started the interview with more awareness.
Their new awareness was in the discovery of a new content area in
the growth and development of young people: youth and death. How
do young people learn about the concept of death? What effect does

death have on youth? Do children mourn? If so, how do they mourn?

Recommendations for Program Development

 

The educational and programmatic implications for the
research findings are varied and far-reaching. The role of the
educator, the teacher in particular, has tremendous potential within
the school and within the health care system. The structure of
the teacher's role produces a variety of possibilities for signifi-
cant interaction and influence with children and adolescents.

Youth spend many hours of each day with teachers for the major
portion of each year until the age of 16-18 years. Teachers touch
the lives of large numbers of youth and parents each year.

The findings from the research revealed strengths in
teachers which were used in a limited manner by the majority of
interviewees; these strengths were observational skill, listening,
and the use of curriculum planning. The skills of observation and
listening raised the teachers' awareness, and curriculum planning
provided an avenue for using and increasing the awareness of their

students' death experiences. The potential for the further

”I"

161

development of these skills, in relationship to the student's
encounters with death, holds much promise for teachers and the health
care system.

In the study, one skillful, supportive teacher was able to
use the curriculum as a vehicle for encouraging children to deal
with death in all the domains of learning - cognitive, affective and
psycho-motor. The data revealed the quality of the interaction and
planning between students, groups of students and teachers differed
widely and affected the manner in which the death was handled, the
behavior of the student and performance of the student. There was
a definite need revealed by the data for a supportive, skillful,
and trusted adult who could guide students in their experiences with
death.

The results of the teachers' skills revealed weaknesses as
well as strengths; their skills developed awareness, but the
majority of teachers lacked confidence in guiding their students'
exploration of their encounters with death. Through observation
many behavioral changes by students, particularly in the areas of
feelings and school performance were noted but teachers appeared
uncertain about their role and their skills in dealing with the
topic of death and the feelings and thoughts of their students.

The students initiated conversation about their death experiences
and teachers listened, but they did not react deeply to the students.
The general response was avoidance of close interaction and close
encounters with the students' death experiences. Curriculum planning

was used more for dealing with the feelings and thoughts of those

162

outside the classroom rather than with the feelings present within
the classroom. It was the rare teacher who provided outlets for
the youth's feelings in a pre-planned manner, gave permission for
the sharing of feelings, and gave choices to the student about his
academic workload in respect of his/her emotional needs.

There was a definite need revealed by the data for a
supportive, skillful, and trusted adult who could guide students in
their experiences with death. The possibilities for development of
the needed skills are present in teachers and the opportunities for
growth are present within the school community. How can the school
community foster the teacher who chooses the role of guiding youth
in the acceptance of death in their lives?

Much of the data, and implications from the data, suggested
a review and expansion of the health care system for educators,
particularly the mental health support system. Examination of the
data revealed that teachers received very little help from supportive
staff in dealing with their students' confusion, strong feelings,
and behavioral changes caused by death. The lack of support in
conjunction with the responsibilities and expectations placed on
teachers by administration, parents and community places the
teachers' responses to their students' encounters with death in a
different context. The supportive staff appeared unaware of the
effects of death on youth; the teacher was isolated and dependent
on her/his own emotional strength and resources for guiding students

in exploration of their confusions and feelings.

163

Within the school community an aware supportive staff would
be of tremendous value to the teacher who was interested in guiding
youth with exploration of death. The acceptance of the teacher's
exploration of her/his feelings and confusions will build the
confidence needed for supporting students in the same exploration.
The supportive staff can seek resources in the larger community for
strengthening the support base of the school community. Community
mental health agencies can provide support for school families.
Universities, State Departments and agencies, community mental health
agencies, colleagues and parents can provide in-service education
for strengthening communication skills, the emotional support base,
and knowledge about the process of conceptualizing death and mourn-
ing death.

Communication skills are basic to a wholistic health care
system. The teacher becomes aware of students' needs through observ-
ing non-verbal communication, listening and interacting sensitively;
colleagues and supportive staff become aware of the teacher's needs
through the same process. In turn the staff uses the process with
parents. What skill could be more fundamental for in-service
education for the school community of educators, students and
parents? If teachers guide students in clarifying their feelings
and thoughts about death, communication skills are essential to
the process.

For the guidance process the teacher must have knowledge upon
which she/he can draw for observation, interaction and curriculum

planning. Developmental information is needed by the school

 

 

164

community; the teacher needs this information for guiding students
through the conceptualization of death and through the mourning
process. Confusions and misunderstandings can be clarified and
strong feelings which accompany mourning can be processed.

Knowledge, communication skills, and emotional support will
assist the teacher in self-exploration also. The same elements will
strengthen observation, interaction and curriculum planning in her/his
professional growth.

Interdependence is a vital ingredient in a healthy support
system. If the concept of interdependence is not operating in the
school community, students will find it most difficult for receiving
the guidance needed for learning about death and accepting death as
part of life. Students will learn about death; will they learn
denial, avoidance, or acceptance through dealing directly with their
fears, confusions and feelings with a supportive, skillful, trusted
adult? The answer lies with the adults in the school community
and community-at-large.

The teachers' difficulties and uneasiness in dealing with
death suggest an examination of the pre-service and graduate pro-
grams for educators and other professionals caring for youth. A new
framework might be needed for developing a professional who is
confident and knowledgable in guiding students through their death
experiences. Not only individual courses need scrutiny, but the
teacher development program bears examination. For instance, what

opportunities are available for teachers in processing thoughts and

feelings about death? For developing communication skills with

 

 

165

youth, other educators and interdisciplinary professionals? For
interdisciplinary exploration of a wholistic view of self or child
or adolescent? For reflection on the value of a preventive,
wholistic health care system? The issue of death is a representa-
tion of all mental health issues. How does a teacher plan a
graduate program in preventive mental health or wholistic health

care?

Recommendations for Research

 

Many avenues for further research evolved from this study.
The present research generates a need for replication: will the
results obtained here be similar to those obtained in a different
setting? Replication of the study with a more narrow population of
school personnel would have informative results. The population

could be limited to the following groups: pre-school teachers,
elementary teachers, secondary teachers, administrators, support
staff, or mental health supportive staff. Since the adult in the
school community is the model for students in processing their
death experiences, the information provided about awareness, and the
uses of this awareness, by these professionals would prove most
valuable.

The many qualitative levels of awareness, and qualitative
uses of awareness provide interesting foci for research. The
populations for studying the qualitative levels of awareness are
teachers, students, administrators, supportive staff and mental

health supportive staff. The areas of foci for researching the levels

166

in usage of awareness are: teachers interactions, students inter-
actions, curriculum planning and consultation.

Teacher-identified behavioral changes by students after
experiencing a death raises an interesting research direction; the
effect of a death experience on a child/adolescent/teacher. ’What
effect, if any, does a death experience have on a child's/
adolescent's behavior? Further, does a death experience affect a
student's academic performance? Should a teacher react differently
with a student who has experienced a death? Does a death experience
affect the child's/adolescent's family life? What effect does a
death experience have on a teacher's performance and interaction
with students and the school community? Answers to these questions
have great impact on the mental health of a school community.

From the data in this study one can conclude that class-
room teachers are functioning within the health care system without
the needed knowledge, Skills and emotional support for the healthy
processing of death experiences with youth or self. A question with
possible research ramification is: Are teachers, supportive staff
and the interdisciplinary group of community professionals working
with youth aware of teachers' influence, and their isolation,
within the health care system?

Acceptance of educators, particularly classroom teachers,
into the health care system would validate the teacher's role as a
significant, supportive adult in the lives of children and adoles—
cents as they experience death. This validation is needed by

teachers within the school community itself and within the

167

interdisciplinary group of professionals who work with youth. The

teacher, who responds sensitively to youth during the processing of
death experiences, needs intellectual and emotional interchange with
the interdisciplinary community of professionals who care for youth

within the school and within the larger community.

.-.‘An

 

When I Die

I'd like flowers
and sunshine.
Grass growing,
leaves blowing,
dogs barking.
Nothing stopping,
everything the same,
When I die.

Jose L.
Age 12

 

 

FOOTNOTES

168

CHAPTER ONE

1Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying_(London:
Macmillan, 1969), p. 7; Jeanne Quint, The Nurse and the Dying Patient
(New York: Macmillan, 1967); Sarah Sheets Cook, Chderen and Dying
(New York: Health Sciences Publishing, 1973), p. 2; Robert Kastenbaum
and Ruth Aisenberg, The Psychology of Death (New York: Spring
Publishing Co., 19721, p. 1; Richard Kalish, “Death and Bereavement:
A Bibliography," Journal of Human Relations, 1965, 13, pp. 118-141.

2Richard Lewis, comp., Miracles: Poems of the English-
Speaking World (Simon and Schuster, N.Y., 1966).

3Robert Kastenbaum and Ruth Aisenberg, The Psychology of
Death (New York: Spring Publishing Co., 1972), p. 1.

4Earl Grollman, Explaining Death to Children (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1967), p. 142.

 

 

 

 

 

169

 

CHAPTER TWO

1Earl Grollman, Explaining Death to Children (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1967).

2Robert Kastenbaum and Ruth Aisenberg, The Psyohology of
Death (New York: Spring Publishing Co., 1972).

3Erna Furman, A Child's Parent Dies: Studies in Childhood
Bereavement, Yale University, 1974.

4Sylvia Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and
After (New York: Basic Books, 1971)}

5Joseph Rheingold, The Mother Anxiety, and Death (Boston:
Little, Brown and Co., 1967), p. 47.

6Elizabeth L. Reed, Helping Children with the Mystery of
Death (New York: Nashville Press, 1970), p. l.

7

 

Kastenbaum and Aisenberg, The Psyohology of Death, p. l.

8Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying(London:
Macmillan, 1969), p. 7.

9Robert Fulton, "0n the Dying of Death," in Earl Grollman
(ed.), Explaining Death to Children (Beacon PreSs, 1967), p. 46.

10Robert Kavanaugh, Facing Death (Los Angeles: Nash Publish-
ing, 1972), p. 16.

HGeoffrey Gorer, Death, Grief and Mourning_(New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1968), preface.

lernold Toynbee, Man's Concern with Death (New York: McGraw-
Hill, 1968), foreword.

13Richard Dumont and Dennis Foss, The American View of Death:
Acceptance or Denial? (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing,
1972), frontispiece.

 

 

170

 

 

 

171

14Sigmund Freud, ”Thoughts for the Times on War and Death,”
in Collected Papers, Vol. 4 (New York: Basic Books, 1959), pp. 304-
305.

15Ibid.. pp. 304-305.

16H L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy (New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1916), pp. 138-143

17Dumont, The American View of Death, p. 4.

18James Agee, A Death in the Family (New York: McDowell,

1938).
19Edwin Shneidman, Death and the Colle e Student (New York:
Behavioral Publications, 1972 .

20Marguerite Bro, When Children Ask (New York: Harper, 1940).

21Dorothy Baruch, You, Your Children and War (New York:
Appleton Century Co., 1943 .

22Arnold Gesell and Frances 119, The Child From Five to Ten
(New York: Harper and Row, 1946), pp. 429—432.

 

23Sylvia Anthony, The Child's Discovery of Death: A Study
in Child Psychology (Kegan Paul, London, 1940), introduction.

 

24Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (New York: Double-
day, 1972).

25Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One (Boston: Little, Brown and
Co., 1948).

26John Gunther, Death Be Not Proud (New York: Harper and
Row, 1949).

27

 

Edith Hunter, The Ques stioningVChild and Religion (Boston:
Beacon Press, l956),p . 18

28Anna Wolf, Helping Your Child to Understand Death (New
York: Child Study Association of America, Inc., 1958), p. 8.

29Charles Wahl, "The Fear of Death," in Robert Fulton,
Death and Identity (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1965), p. 58.

30Herman Feifel (ed.)., The Meaning of Death (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1959), p. xvii.

31Selma Fraiber , The Magic Years (New York: Charles
Scribner and Sons, 1959?, p. 273.

 

 

 

 

172

32Arata Osada (compiler), Children of the A-Bomb (New York:
G.P. Putnam, 1959), P. 99.

33...I Never Saw Another Butterfly (New York: McGraw-Hill).

34Richard Kalish, "Death and Bereavement: A Bibliography,"
Journal of Human Relations, 1965, 13, Pp. 118-141.

 

35Geoffrey Gorer, Death, Grief and Mournlpg (New York:
Doubleday, 1965), p. xxv.

 

36Robert Fulton, Death and Identity (New York: John Wiley
and Sons, 1965), p. 69.

37Martha Wolfenstein, (ed.), Children and the Death of a
President (New York: Doubleday, 1965), p. xi.

38Edgar Jackson, Telling Your Child About Death (New York:
Channel Press, 1965).

39

 

 

 

Grollman, Explaining Death to Children, p. xii.

4OIbid., p. 3.

4lEdith Neisser Mothers and Daughters (New York: Harper
and Row, 1967), p. 381.

 

42Rheingold, The Mother, Anxiety, and Death, p. viii.
43Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying, pp. 20-21.
44Ibid., pp. 6-7.

45

) Bernadine Kreis, Up from Grief (New York: Seabury Press,
1969 .

46Austin Kutscher, But Not to Lose (New York: Frederick
Fell, 1969). p. 24. "”“““""“

47Nicholas Tucker, ”Why Nursery Rhymes," in Virginia Haviland,
Children and Literature (Glenview, Illinois, Scott Foresman, 1973),
p. 261.

48

49Sylvia Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and
After, preface.

50

Reed, Helping Childrgp with the Mystery of Death.

 

Ibid., p. 10.

 

 

 

173

51Harlene Galen, "A Matter of Life and Death," Young_Chi1dren
XXVII, 6, August 1972, p. 351.

52
53

 

Ibid., p. 351.

Kastenbaum, The Paychology of Death, p. 1.

54Ibid., p. 237.

55Dumont, The American View of Death, p. 4.

56John Langone, Death is a Noun (Boston: Little, Brown and
Co., 1972), p. 6.

57

 

Kavanaugh, Facinngeath, p. 16.

 

58Avery Weisman, On Dying and Denying (New York: Behavioral
Publications, 1972), p. 9.

59Kavanaugh, Facing Death, p. 3.

60Milton Mayer, If Men Were Angels (New York: Atheneum,
1972), p. 70.

6]David Hendin, Death As a Fact of Life (New York: W.W.
Norton, 1973), p. 11.

62Talcott Parsons, Renee Fox and Victor Lidz, "The Gift of
Life," in Arien Mack, Death in the American Experience (New York:
Shocken Books, 1972), p. 2.

63Robert Neale, The Art of Dyiog (New York: Harper and Row,
1973), p. ix.

64Marya Mannes, Last Rights (New York: William Morrow,
1973), p. 57.

65Sarah Sheets Cook, Children and Dylog_(New York: Health
Sciences Publishing, 1973), p. 2.

66Kubler-Ross,Questions and Answers on Death and Dying
(New York: Macmillan, 1974).

67Phillippe Aries, Western Attitudes Toward Death (Baltimore:
John Hopkins University, 1974), p. x.

68

 

 

 

Ibid., pp. 102-103.

69Herman Feifel, (ed.), The Meaning of Death, p. xiv.

 

174

70Robert Lifton, Living and Dying_(New York: Praeger
Publishers, 1974), p. 19.

71Stanley Keleman, Living Your Dying (New York: Random
House, 1974), pp. 3—4.

72Grollman, Concerning Death (Beacon Press, 1974), introduc-

 

tion.

73Journal of Clinical Child Psychology_III (1974).

74Children Today, May-June 1975.

75Eda LeShan, Learning to Say Good-by When a Parent Dies
(New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1976), introduction.

76Richard Trubo, An Act of Mercy: Euthanasia Today (Los
Angeles: Nash Publications, 1973), p. 106.

77Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Death and Dying;

Attitudes of Patient and Doctor (New York: Mental Health Materials
Center, 1965):p. 628.

78
79
80

 

Shneidman, Death and the Collego Student, p. xiv.
Trubo, An Act of Meroy: Euthanasia Today, p. 107.

Ibid., p. 109.

8lKavanaugh, Facing Death, p. 6.

821bid., p. 5.

83Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying, p. 111 and Kubler-Ross,
"Death and the Child," lecture at the workshop 'Death and Dying,I
Wesley College, Owosso, spring 1974.

84Richard Kalish, "Aged and the Dying Process: The
Inevitable Decision," Journal of Social Issues, XXI (1965), p. 88.

85Kastenbaum, The Paychology of Death, p. 223.

86Jeanne Quint, The Nurse and the Dying Patient (New York:
Macmillan, 1967) and Jeanne Quint, "The Social Context of Dying,"
presentation at the conference "Terminal illness and impending
death among the aged." Washington, D.C., May 10, 1966.

87Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 225.

 

 

175

88Group-for the Advancement of Psychiatry, Death and Dying,

 

p. 628.
89 . .
Cook, Children and Dying, p. 13.

90Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss, Awareness of Dying
(Chicago: Aldine Publishing, 1965), p. 22.

91August Kasper, "The Doctor and Death," in Herman Feifel,
ed., The Meaniog of Death (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), p. 261.

92Herman Fiefel, S. Hanson, R. Jones, and L. Edwards,
"Physicians Consider Death," proceedings, 75th Annual Convention,
American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.: American
Psychological Association, 1967.

93P.B. Livingston and C.N. Zimet, "Death Anxiety, Author-
itarianism, Choice of Specialty in Medical Students," Journal of
Nervous and Mental Diseases, 1965, 140, PP. 222-230.

94Herman Feifel, "The Functions of Attitudes Toward Death,"
Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry: Death and Dying: Attitudes

 

 

 

 

 

 

of Patient and Doctor, GAP Symposium L 11, Vol. 5, October, 1965,
pp. 632-641.

95

 

Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dying, 1969, pp. 221-222.

 

96Feifel, “The Functions of Attitudes Toward Death," pp. 632-
533.

97Kubler-Ross, On Death and Dyiog, p. 28.

98Mannes, Last Rights, p. 52.
99

 

Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 444.

 

100Ibid., p. 230.

'O'Ibid., p. 231.

'OZHerman Feifel and A.B. Branscomb, “Who's Afraid of Death?"
Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1973, 81, pp. 282-288.

103Herman Feifel, "Psychology and the Death—Awareness Move-
ment,“ Journal of Clinical Child Psychology III (1974), p. 7.

104

 

 

Grollman, Explaining Death to Children, p. 142.

 

105Hella Moller, "Death: Handling the Subject and Affected
Students," in Explaining Death to Children.

 

 

176

106Galen, "A Matter of Life and Death," p. 355.

107Dan Leviton and Eileen Forman, "Death Education for
Children and Youth," Journal of Clinical Child Psychology III
(1974), p. 7.

108Galen, "A Matter of Life and Death." P- 355°

109Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 237.

noLeviton, "Death Education for Children and Youth," Po 9-

n"Project Headstart, Poychologist #12 (Rainbow Series),
(Washington, D.C.: Office of Economic Opportunity, 1969), pp. 25-26.

112Ray Helfer, "Why Most Physicians Don't Get Involved in
Child Abuse Cases," Children Today 1975, Vol. 4, No. 3, p. 32.

113Irving Sigel, "Development Considerations of the Nursery
School Experience," in Peter Neubauer, M. 0. (ed.) Concepts of
Development in Early Childhood Education (Merrill-Palmer Institute),
p. 101.

 

 

 

 

 

H4Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 364.
'15Ibid.

1'sihid.

117Ibid., p. 355.

H8Ibid., p. 353.

119Ibid., p. 355.

120Ibid.

12IShneidman, Death and the College Student, p. 4.
'ZZIbid.

123

Edgar Jackson, "The Theological, Psychological, and
Philosophical Dimensions of Death," in Earl Grollman, Explainiog
Death to Children, p. 194.

124Robert Kastenbaum, "The Child's Understanding of Death,"
in Earl Grollman, Explaining Death to Children, p. 105.

125Edgar Jackson, "Helping Children Cope with Death," in
Sarah Sheets Cook, Children and Dyiog, p. 29.

 

 

 

 

177

126Avery Weisman, On Dying and Denying.

 

127Keleman, Living Your Dying, pp. 57-59.

 

128Mervyn Shoor and Mary Speed, "Death, Delinquency and the
Mourning Process," in Robert Fulton, Death and Identity (New York:
John Wiley and Sons, 1965), pp. 201-202.

'zgibid., p. 202.

'3°Ibid.. pp. 202-203.

13'Ibid., p. 204.

132Fulton, "On the Dying of Death," p. 40.

133John Bowlby and C.M. Parkes, "Separation and Loss Within
the Family," in James Anthony, The Child in His Family Vol. I,
New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1970, p. 206.

134Wolfenstein, Children and the Death of a President, Po 55-

135Edgar Jackson, "Helping Children Cope with Death," in
Sarah Sheets Cook, Children and Dying, p. 28.

136Observation from an undergraduate's notes in 312 Growth
and Development of Children, Spring 1973.

'37Tohy Talbot, ed., The World of the Child (New York:
Doubleday and Co., 1967), pp. 325-326.

138Margot Tallmer, "Factors Influencing Children's Concepts
of Death," Journal of Clinical Child Psychology_III (1974), p. 17.

139Robert Kastenbaum, "Childhood: The Kingdom Where
Creatures Die," Journal of Clinical Child Psychology III (1974),
p. 12.

 

 

 

140

141Susan Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Young Children (New
York: Shocken Books, 1966), (1927 First edition), p. 159.

142

Ibid.

Ibid., p. 160.
143

144

Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 89.

 

Feifel, ''Psychology and the Death-Awareness Movement,"

 

 

178

'45Ibid., p. 7.

146Walter Connor, "Meanings of Death to Young Children,"
Offspring Vol. X, No. l, p. 6.

147Evelyn Pitcher, Children Tell Stories (New York: Inter-
national Universities Press, Inc., 1963), p. 162.

 

148Kubler-Ross, On Death and Denyiog, p. 3. "...It is well
to remember that the child will react in the same manner if he loses
a parent by divorce, separation, or desertion. Death is often seen
by a child as an impermanent thing and has therefore little dis-
tinction from a divorce in which he may have an opportunity to see
a parent again."

 

149Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After.

 

p. 240.

150J. Piaget, The Child's Construction of Reality_(London:
Kegan Paul, 1955), p. 313.

151

 

Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,
p. 189.

'SZIbid., p. 159.

'53Ibid.. p. 195.

'54Ibid., p. 238.

155Gerald P. Koocher, "Why Isn't the Gerbil Moving Anymore?"
Children Today_Vol. 4, No. l, Jan.-Feb. 1975, p. 19.

156

 

Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,

 

p. 186.

157Connor, "Meanings of Death to Young Children," p, 8.

158Koocher, "Why Isn't the Gerbil Moving Anymore?" p. 19.

159Frances G. Wickes, The Inner World of Childhood (New York:
Appleton-Century, 1966), p. 126.

'6OIbid.. pp. 332-333.

161Me1 Krantzler, Creative Divorce (New York: M. Evans,
1973), p. 207. "School is one of the most common areas in which a
child of this age will express his anxiety and fears. It is not
unusual for very good students to get failing grades under the initial

 

 

 

179

impact of their parents' divorce. Such deterioration in school work
may reflect the child's anxiety over his disturbed family relation-
ship, or his desire to punish himself for 'causing' the divorce."

162Wickes, The Inner World of Childhood, pp. 332-333-

'53Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After.

p. 241.

164Ibid., p. 241.

'55Ibid., p. 242.

166Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Young Children, P- 160:

167Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,
p. 244.

168Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Young Children, p. 160.

169Koocher, "Why Isn't the Gerbil Moving ANYWOPE?" P- 13-

170Kenneth Wann and Miriam Dorn and Elizabeth Liddle,
Fostering Intellectual Development in Young Children (New York:
Teachers College, Columbia University, 1962), pp. 18—20.

171Anthony, The Child's Discovery of Death, p. 31.

 

172P. Schilder and D. Wechsler, "The Attitudes of Children
Toward Death," Journal of Abnormal Social Paychology 45 (1934): pp.
406-451.

173M. Nagy, "The Child's Theories Concerning Death,"
Journal of Genetic Psychology_73 (1948).

174Gregory Rochlin, "How Younger Children View Death and
Themselves," in Earl Grollman, Explaining_Death to Children, pp. 51-88.

175Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 15.

'75Ibid.. p. 15.

177Anthonya The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,
p. 188.

'78Robert Kastenbaum, "The Child's Understanding of Death,"
in Earl Grollman, Explaininngeath to Children, p. 911.

179Tallmer, "Factors Influencing Children's Concepts of
Death," p. 17.

 

 

 

 

180

180Anthony, The Child's Discovery of Death. P- 98-

 

18'Anthony. The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,
p. 188.

'BZIbid., p. 152.

'83Ipid., p. 202.

184

185d. Piaget, The Languoge and Thought of the Child, (London:
Kegan Paul, 1959), p. 51.

Ibid., pp. 248-249.

 

186Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,
p. 168.

187

 

Ibid., p. 253.

'Bgibid.

189Connor, "Meanings of Death to Young Children," p. 8.

190Wayne Gartley and Marion Bernasconi, "The Concept of Death
in Children," in Alfred Binter, The Psychology of the Elementary
School Child (Chicago: Rand McNally and Co., 1972), p. 227.

191
p. 11.

192
p. 158.

193
pp. ll-12.

 

Kastenbaum, "Psychology and the Death-Awareness Movement,"
Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,
Kastenbaum, "Childhood: The Kingdom Where Creatures Die,"
194Anthony, The Discovery of Death in Childhood and After,

p. 158.

'gsibid..
195

. 158.
159.
119.

Ibid.,

1”Ibid..

'98 . 240.

‘U‘U'U‘C

Ibid.,

199Gartley, "The Concept of Death in Children," P- 229-

200Kastenbaum, The Paychology of Death, p. 24.

181

20lKoocher, "Why Isn't the Gerbil Moving Anymore?” p. 18.

202Kastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, p. 92.

 

203
204

Sarah Sheets Cook, Children and Qyiog, p. l.

Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Younnghildren, p. 159.

ZOSKastenbaum, The Psychology of Death, Pp. 5-6.

206
207

Ibid., p. 93.

Ibid. , p. 94.

208Isaacs, Intellectual Growth in Young Children, p. 160-

 

 

CHAPTER FIVE

1Earl Grollman, Explaining Death to Children (Boston:
Beacon Press, 1967), p. T42}

 

182

 

 

 

sh.

V“

BIBLIOGRAPHY

183

 

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Kutscher, Austin. But Not to Lose: A 800k of Comfort for Those
Bereaved. New York: Frederick Fell, Inc., 1969.

Langone, John. Death is a Noun:' A View of the End of Life.
Boston/Toronto: Little, Brown & Co., 1972.

LeShan, Eda. Learning to Sanyoodoy When a Parent Dies. New York:
Macmillan Publishing Co., 1976.

Leviton, Dan and Eileen Forman. "Death Education for Children and
Youth," Journal of Clinical Child Psychology III, 1974.

Lewis, Richard (compiler). Miracles: Poems of the English-Speaking
World. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.

Lifton, Robert. Living and Dying. New York: Praeger Publishers,
1974.

 

Livingston, P. B. and C. N. Zimet. "Death Anxiety, Authoritarianism,
Choice of Specialty in Medical Students," Journal of Nervous
and Mental Diseases, 1965.

 

Mannes, Marya. 'Last Rights: A Case for the Good Death. New York:
William Morrow & Co., 1973.

Mayer, Milton. If Men Were Angels. New York: Atheneum, l972.

 

Mencken, H. L. A Mencken Chrestomathy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1916.

 

Moller, Hella. "Death: Handling the Subject and Affected Students"
in Earl Grollman (ed.), Explaininngeath‘to Children.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.

Nagy, Maria H. "The Child's View of Death," Journal of Genetic
Psyphology, 73: 1948.

 

Neale, R. E. Art of Dying. New York: Harper and Row, 1973.

 

Neisser, Edith. Mothers and Daughters: A Lifelong‘Relationship.
New York: Harper and Row, 1967.

Osada, Arata (compiler). Children of the A-Bomb: The Testament of
the Boys and Girls of Hiro§hima. New York: G. P. Putnam,
1959.

Quint, Jeanne. The Nurse and The Dying Patient. New York: Macmillan,
1967.

 

Parkes, Colin Murray. ’BereaVement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life.
New York: International Universities, 1972.

189

Parsons, Talcott, Renee Fox, and Victor Lidz. "The Gift of Life"
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. The Languoge and Thought of the Child. London: Kegan
Paul, 1959.

Pitcher, Evelyn and Ernst Prelinger. Children Tell Stories: An
Analysis of Fantasy. New York: International Universities
Press, Inc., 1963.

 

Project Headstart. Psychologist #12 (Rainbow Series). Washington,
D. C.: Office Of Economic Opportunity, 1969.

 

Reed, Elizabeth Liggett. HelpingChildren With the Mystery of Death.
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Roberts, Christine. "Helping Children Cope with Death," Educational

 

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Schiff, Harriett Sarnoff. The Bereaved Parent. Penguin Books, 1977.

 

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Schneider, John and Lois Frears. "Exploring Loss and Grief in a
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190

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Wolfenstein, Martha (ed.). Children and the Death of a President.
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Phi, 1978.

 

 

APPENDICES

191

 

 

 

APPENDIX A

192

 

 

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195

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW GUIDE

STUDENTS' RESPONSES TO THE DEATH EXPERIENCE
Emotional Responses:
anger
crying
sadness
hostility
withdrawal
loneliness
30y

indifference

Action Responses:

send notes, cards, pictures
send flowers

send food

visit the family

visit the funeral parlor
attend the funeral

ask for help

talk with a resource person

build a support system

 

196

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW GUIDE

CURRICULUM RESPONSES
Fine arts
movement
drama
art
music
creative writing

literature

Language Arts/English

Social Studies/Humanities

Science

Physical Education/Extracurricular Sports

Extra-curricular Activities

Vocational Education

Math

 

 

 

197

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW GUIDE

What consultation help did you request so you could
be more effective in helping the student (or students)

integrate the death experience?

What consultation help were you offered by the
consultants so you could be more effective in
helping the student (or students) integrate the

death experience?

What consultation help have you given to help other
adults in the school community integrate their

death experiences?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX B

198

 

APPENDIX B

#13 TEACHER'S OBSERVATIONS OF RICK

Rick was ten years old and in the fourth grade. In September
Rick was shy and withdrawn. The goal set for him during the fall was
to "bring Rick out of his shell." Great improvement was made during
the first month of school.

During November Rick's behavior changed; he withdrew again.
There was no apparent reason. One writing assignment was remembered.
The children were told, "Pretend you are a turkey. How would you
feel about Thanksgiving? Write about it.“ Rick was adamant in his
refusal to do the assignment. Finally, he was told, "Write about
any topic you would like." However, he did not finish the assign-
ment. In a few days the discovery was made about the death of Rick's
dog. His mother reported, “Rick has been very upset about his dog."

During the Thanksgiving vacation an aunt who lived with
Rick's family died. Now Rick's behavior changed even more. He
became very withdrawn. "1 was afraid to open up a discussion about
death. He was so depressed." When Rick's mother was called, she
said, "Oh, I hoped it wouldn't affect his school work. He is having
trouble at home, too."

Since Rick was a very conscientious child, he became tense
over his schoolwork. He became depressed when he found his work

199

 

200

unfinished. When he did not understand his work immediately, he
became very "blue." Often he daydreamed. Since he appeared to need
time for daydreaming, he was allowed some time without accountability.

The class hamster died in December. Rick was sad about this
event. One day Rick was deprived of recess because his work was not
finished. A talk was needed.

"You're having a hard time, aren't you, Rick?" And I put
my arm around him. Rick broke into sobbing and he sobbed for a long
time. I said, “You have enough to think about. Don't worry about
your work. If you have a question, ask me. You want to be smart,
don't you? You are smart. Remember the good work you did in math
and spelling last week?"

Rick's cat died in January. Now Rick was sick for three
weeks. Rick came back to school in the first part of February, but

he was "very low.‘ Then, he was sick for two weeks again. The
social worker visited Rick at home. On one of the social worker's
visits Rick asked, "I wonder if I'll die?"

According to the social worker, Rick's father put too much
pressure on him. Rick's uncle had a Ph.D. and he taught in a univer-
sity. Although Rick's dad was a very successful businessman, he
regretted the lack of a degree. Now he was "making sure Rick did
not make the same mistake."

A benefit basketball game was held as a fund-raiser for a
sixth grader who had Hodgkins' disease. The funds were used for

the hospital bills. Rick's class discussed this project and its

ramifications after the handbill was delivered. The children asked

 

201

questions about the disease. "Is it fatal?" A long discussion
period developed from the questions. Although the children learned
the disease was fatal in time, the hope of medication and arrest was
discussed too.

Rick loved competing and playing baseball at recess. He
returned from the playground in a very dirty state. The dirt was
unbelievable and he was sent to the bathroom often for washing. It
was as if Rick came alive on the ballfield.

The neighbor teacher had had many of the children in the
class for third grade the previous year. Rick was one of her former
students. One day she was teaching and the next day she was dead.
Comprehension of this event was difficult for me, the staff and the
class. For Rick it was one more death blow.

Rick did not finish one written story during the entire
year. His achievement scores dropped during the school year;
probably this was because of the many deaths. Rick was less
depressed by the end of the year.

As the end of the year approached, Rick was in touch with
his work, his friends, his teacher and himself. Bad news came through
the secretary. Rick's mother had terminal cancer. Now Rick was given
more "leeway." It was suggested at the parent-teacher conference
that Rick's mother seek help for Rick from his minister. If his
tension could be relieved, his spirits might rise.

"1 was very concerned about Rick's ability to assimilate
the news of his mother's approaching death." Since he was going to

middle school, some continuity for Rick and the next teacher seemed

 

202

desirable. A long commentary was written and put in his folder.
(A suggestion was made to #13 Teacher about personal follow-up
with the middle school teacher. She was very interested in this
idea.)

"One thing Rick has going for him is interested parents.
His father is very interested. Thank heavens!" These were the

parting words in the interview.

 

 

APPENDIX C

203

 

APPENDIX C

#3 TEACHER'S OBSERVATIONS ON MARK

Mark was nine years old and in the third grade. During
September Mark was rebellious and violent. Between the violent
outbursts he acted numb. He would do no work. There was no par-
ticipation by him in any activity. Journal entries were written
each day but Mark never wrote a line. He retreated from the group
by disappearing under his desk; then, he would kick his desk and
"send it flying.” He threw chalk across the room; sometimes erasers
and books joined the missile barrage. If it was close at hand, Mark
threw it. ”It was as though Mark was saying, 'Pay attention to me.'“

Because Mark could not be reached by talking with him or
through any assignments, a phone call to his parents seemed appro-
priate and necessary. One week after school opened, the call was
made. Hopefully Mark's parents might have a reason for his unusual
behavior. However, his mother had no new information. "Nothing
unusual was happening at home." The violent behavior continued
in the school.

Toward the end of September, Mark's parents were called
again. The situation was desperate. This call revealed very
important information. Mark had been in the hospital for a hernia
operation in August. While in the hospital, Mark had been in a ward

204

205

with seriously ill people. Mark's mother told about her husband's
terminal illness of cancer. She was caring for him at home since
the hospital was not in their financial reach. The family had no
major medical insurance. Mark's father had been an active,
vigorous man, but now was "a shell of his former self." He was in
great pain.

Mark's behavior was destructive to himself, destructive to
others and destructive to the learning atmosphere in the classroom.
The children avoided him now because they had been hurt by him.
They were afraid of Mark. He did hit without discrimination and for
no apparent reason.

Help was requested from the principal. The principal's
response to the request was "discipline should be handled in the
room." In desperation help was requested again two weeks later.
"Every time a tough decision comes up you can't pass the buck" was
the principal's comment. Help was never requested again.

Mark was failing academically and his behavior indicated
emotional anguish. With the new information from his mother Mark
was told, "Don't worry about your school work. You have enough to
worry about right now. Do the work if you feel like doing it. If
you don't, leave it."

A letter was written to the social worker for the Intermediate
School District requesting a visitation and observation of Mark.
Meanwhile, "a teacher in another building and a non-school friend

helped me by listening."

 

 

 

206

The speech therapist in the same building taught Mark's
brother, Verne. He was violent in speech class. In desperation
the speech therapist compared notes with me. At my invitation she
came into my classroom for observation of Mark. She wanted ideas
for working with Verne. She could not reach Verne either.

Verne was in the classroom next door to Mark and Teacher
#3. He spent a great amount of time in the hall so the conflict
between Verne and his teacher was obvious. Teacher #3 approached
Verne's teacher but she was not open for discussion about the
children's behavior and their situation. "In fact, she was punitive
in her attitude toward Verne." These teachers never communicated
about the boys during the school year.

In the middle of October, Mark communicated with his
teacher for the first time when he drew a picture of a big black
rock on top of a very small stick figure. The violence continued.
One day he tore a teacher's manUal in half.

The only reasonable thought was planning for the violence.
The class was asked for the sharing of ideas revolving around
aggressive toys. A Bozo clown was used for punching, pounding and
pushing. A wasketbasket and beanbags were introduced as a substitute
for the throwing of chalk, erasers and pencils. When hammer, nails,
saws and wood were set up as an activity, Mark would pound nails
for long periods of time. Sometimes he pounded dozens of nails
into the wood so the surface showed all metal and no wood. Both
sides of the wood were used if it was thick enough. The class and

Mark destroyed three Bozos that school year.

 

 

207

Soon after the drawing of the rock picture, Mark stated
aloud for the first time, "There is a man dying in my house." Mark
appeared in a vacuum for long stretches of time; then, he would
explode. These explosive times would be the "throwing periods.“
One day he threw himself on the floor and kicked and shouted. "I
hate school. I hate you, I hate trees. I hate walls. I hate
everything."

Mark would lie under the table in the room with hands
folded. A classmate might ask, "What are you doing?“ Mark would
reply, "Playing dead.‘l Another day he wrote in his journal, "I
wish the world would die."

In the middle of November, Mark identified the dying man as
his father. "You know my father is going to die," he said.

Mark's family was falling apart. His teenage brothers were
involved in drugs. Mark and his brother, Verne, had been caught
setting fires. Mark's mother wanted help but she did not know where
to get it. Often she came to school and talked about her loss of
control in the family. She was sinking beneath the weight of her
responsibility. "I felt sorry for her and talked with her when I
could. I investigated mental health agencies for her and suggested
one for family counseling."

Since tension was high in the room often, music was used
for relaxation purposes. Mark was very sensitive to music; he
interpreted well verbally but never moved any part of his body with

the rhythm. "It sounds like someone is being punished. Maybe he

 

208

is dying." When the children were invited to move with the music,
‘ Mark did not participate. The only noticeable movement was a
blinking of his eyes; sometimes he blinked in rhythm.

During the fall the children held a few funerals at recess
time, but Mark did not participate. The children sang songs, read
eulogies, and chanted. They buried dead mice, birds, ants, and
bees. Their funeral planning was extensive. Stones were piled on
the graves as tombstones. Milk cartons were used for coffins. "It
almost became humorous because they buried everything.“

In November, Mark's brother, Verne, still was sitting in
the hall much of the day. During one week he broke the glass in the
classroom door four different times after slamming it on the way to
the hall. The custodian replaced it each time. Suddenly Verne
spent time in the principal's office rather than the hall. While
in the office he sat and did nothing. Verne continued his violent
behavior. He continued sitting in the office.

Many teachers in the lounge talked about Mark and Verne in
a very punitive manner. Their family was criticized constantly. No
one offered sympathy or help. "One day I could listen no longer.

I shouted, 'I think you are all inhumane. I don't see how you can

be so inhuman.‘ Then, I stormed through the door and slammed it on
the way out--as hard as I could. I didn't communicate with anyone

after that except for the speech therapist."

In December, the Intermediate School District social worker

arrived. It was her first year as a social worker so she did not

 

209

have much help to offer. Her parting words were "I'm very
interested in this, so let me know if you find out anything.“

Before his father's death in December, Mark drew a coffin
with a man in it. "This man is dying at my house," he said. (He
used this sentence often.) "He doesn't look like anyone I know,"
Mark continued.

Mark's father died toward the end of December. Due to the
experiences the children had been allowed to live together, every
child participated in the funeral in some way. They attended the
funeral or visited the family or visited the funeral parlor.

After his father's death, Mark drew a skeleton figure in a
coffin. He stated, "My dad looked better dead than alive." Later
in January Mark drew a boy sitting on a brown rock. By the rock was
a bud or little piece of grass. When I asked for the drawing, Mark
insisted, "I can draw a better one for you." His new picture was
dominated by a hill with three or four flowers in a bouquet near a
blanket on which sat a boy. Mark said, "My family is having a
picnic." Another child in the class responded, “It looks like
you are having a picnic in the cemetery." Mark retorted, "Where
else could I have a picnic with my Dad?"

Another day Verne opened the double doors to both entrances
of the library which was in the center of the school. Then, he went
out of the building, mounted bicycles with Mark, and they rode through
the building, library and out the front door. The librarian trailed

after him yelling, "You can't do that in here."

210

During February, Mark exploded at recess. "My father is
dead. He's dead, he's dead, he's dead!” he screamed. Before his
father's death and after his father's death, Mark needed much time
alone. He was quieter after the death, but he would go under the
table still. He would sit quietly for long periods. One unusual
statement was "He didn't perspire (expire?). He's dead--died--no
more life."

Mark's mother continued a relationship with me throughout
the year. She always talked about her family's troubles and there
were lots of troubles. Finally one of the teenage sons scheduled
an appointment with a county mental health agency.

Mark wrote some poetry. A haiku poem mentioned "baby
bouncing on father's knee."

As Mark became more well adjusted in living with his class-
mates, the children shared more about their own experiences with
death. Sometimes the sharing was sad. "My puppy chewed my father's
slippers and he took my puppy out and shot him." "My cat had kittens
but my father put them in a bag and they aren't kittens anymore."
Other times it was more joyous. "My grandma died but I remember
the fun we had baking cookies."

In the spring a self-awareness unit was planned. It was a
suggested unit for third grade, but I chose it because of Mark's
unique experiences. The involvement of the other children in his
experience was an added reason. The group drew pictures of their

families for the unit. Mark said as he showed his picture to the

 

211

group, "You all know my dad died but this is my mother, brother
Sid, Art and brother Verne."

One particular day in April, Mark burst out of the door at
recess time. He ran to a bush and shouted, "Here are two buds."
Then he ran to a tree and hugged it. "Oh, here are two more." He
continued running from tree to tree enthusiastically greeting spring.
This was the day Mark accepted his father's death and life for him-
self again, in my opinion.

Until the end of the year Mark required periods of aloneness.
He was very sensitive to the outdoors. Often during recess he
would lie on the grass and look at the sky the entire recess time.

In May, it was Mark's turn for decorating the class bulletin
board. After some class discussion he chose the theme of Smile. He
used paper cuts and much fantasy. When he was asked if he needed
helpers, he replied, "Three or four kids want to help me." They
did help him and the bulletin board turned out well.

Later in May he said, "I have this problem. Can I talk
with you?" He gave me a picture of a frog with a big grin. "I
guess teachers aren't so bad.‘I

At the end of the school year Mark was on grade level. His
brother was not. His brother was not in a healthy mental state,
either. Verne's teacher said, "You got the more mature one. I got
the violent one."

Mark's mother commented on the marked differences between
the growth of the boys during the year. She also thought Mark had
helped the family grow.

MICHIGAN

312

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