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The loss of a loved one can drastically change a child’s life. A child who experiences this often loses their sense of belonging and control over their life. It is therefore important for teachers to do all they can to make that child feel worthy and important again. Personally, I have been fortunate in that I have never experienced the loss of someone I care about. Death was not something that I gave much thought to as it has never touched my life. It was not until recently that a professor of mine said something that made me start to think about death. She said that in her twenty-five years of teaching, four of her students had died. She also stressed the importance of being prepared in case you have a student who loses a parent or a sibling. During my half-day practicum, in a grade four-five class at Bayview Elementary, the class pet bunny died. Ms. Jorgensen, the teacher, held a ceremony to honour the bunny. Many of the students cried and so did Ms. Jorgensen. By not hiding her own feelings from her students she modeled grief for them which gave them validity for the sadness that they were all feeling. Being open encouraged her students to ask questions about death which Ms. Jorgensen openly and honestly answered. Drawing on more minor experiences with death, like this one, will better prepare the students for the occurrence of a more painful death as they will have a better understanding of what death is. I realized that I would not be prepared if death were to occur in my classroom. Therefore, I felt it was necessary to write a paper about the inclusion of death and grief in the classroom. Death is a difficult subject for anyone to talk about, and teachers are no exception. It is, however, a part of life and should therefore not be ignored. Although some people feel that that they are protecting children by avoiding discussions of death and grieving, or lying about what happened, they are not. What ends up happening is that the child will become confused or frightened. “Teachers can help students cope with loss by being open and honest about death and encouraging discussions of feelings and ideas." (Westmoreland, 1996:159) The best way that teachers can help children to cope with the loss of a loved one is by being prepared. Being prepared involves understanding how children view death, knowing the basic concepts of death, being familiar with normal and abnormal expressions of grief, and having strategies for helping children to cope with death. Children will inevitably encounter death whether it is with an insect, a class pet, or an elderly grandparent. According to extensive research, children start to form ideas about what death is at a relatively early age. (Essa & Murray, 1994:74) Knowing this and knowing that children will inevitably encounter death, it is important for teachers to develop an understanding of how children view death. A child’s understanding of death will be much more developed if that child has had a near-death experience or experienced the loss of a loved one.
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