ABSTRACT
Education, the process by which one develops one's potential for one's own sake as well as for that of society, has included education about death and bereavement since prehistoric times. Different cultures have introduced their young to the realities of ultimate loss as a part of tribal or religious custom and more recently through formal teaching. In analogy to many specific forms of education such as medical education, death education has the sense of "preparation for death". Contemporary formal education about death and bereavement is primarily a North American phenomenon. Death education began in universities and colleges, and later filtered into elementary and high schools. Many goals have been established for death education. The death education curriculum has a cognitive aspect that includes the development of a body of knowledge and an affective aspect that includes changes in attitudes and values.
