ABSTRACT

Everything that lives will one day die. Death is, after all, a part of life. However, a look at our schools could make one question this basic fact. The topic of death is one that is seldom discussed in schools and some educators labor under the mistaken belief that it is not a subject which they need to address. Schools often do not have a procedure for coping with student grief. Teachers are, for the most part, still unaware of the role they can play in helping grieving students. The reality is that students do experience the death of loved ones and their grief can have an impact on their learning and on the learning atmosphere which can be real, immediate, and profound.