Why death education should be a course accessible to all college students

In his 1789 letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, Benjamin Franklin asserted that "in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes", which has held true for 230 years and will continue to persist. While people have for centuries focused on the multitude of experiences and characteristics that unite or divide humankind, there are few that can be considered as universal as that of the death and dying process, though few give much thought to this experience until it's impacting their life in a dramatic way.

Though it is commonly acknowledged that the death of a loved one has dramatic impacts on the surviving family members and friends, it is not as often that we acknowledge the multitude of life functions that are altered by the dying process. To begin, there are the more obvious emotional factors of loss that impact the individual, including the loss of security, friendship and love. Some recognized impacts are financial, including the incredible cost of the dying process such as the decline of health in the finals days/weeks/years, the postmortem process of funerals, caskets and grave plots, as well as the loss of income if the deceased was a provider within the family unit. The social impacts dramatically vary between different religious and cultural groups ranging from the modern day Christian funeral to the Jewish Shiva to the public cremation on the funeral pyre customary to Buddhists; the variation in socially acceptable mourning periods, the dealing with of estates, finances and debts, the incredibly difficult ethical decisions made on a daily basis by physicians, the emotional complications that occur with childhood death and unexpected accidental or suspicious deaths, and more.

Few modern day American adults are familiar with the historical aspects of the death and dying process, and even less are actively aware of, or able to openly discuss, the difficult topics that are an intimate aspect of the human experience.

Youths, in particular, seem to have a god complex where they have no recognition of their own mortality, until impacted by the loss of close acquaintance. The major causes of death of American teenagers 15-19 years old as well as young adults aged 19-24 years old are accidents, followed by suicide and homicide, which are often attributed to risky behavior including drunk or distracted driving, drug overdose, or falls. This perceived immortality runs rampant among college students, who have relatively little experience with death of loved ones, on average, and who have the least amount of death education based on social and cultural stigmas.

When there is an unexpected death in a family it often falls on a young adult to assume responsibilities of filing the death certificate, organizing the funeral, contacting insurance companies, writing the obituary, dealing with the home and belongings, finding the will if one was written, deciding the method of body disposal, etc., and most young adults in this situation find themselves at a loss as to where to start. Trying to balance these new responsibilities while experiencing grief can cause extreme psychological issues, to which a preparedness class could likely alleviate to a certain extent.

While students will likely have incredibly varying opinions on the controversial topics of abortion, the afterlife, proper burial procedures, etc., the exposure to contradicting viewpoints can be incredibly eye opening to the students in question. Teaching America's young adults how to appropriately discuss and prepare for the difficult times of life seems to be a more humanistic approach to the reality that they will experience. A class focused on death education not only allows the students to address ethical and moral issues in a structured and supportive environment, but allows them to properly prepare for their own future, as well as educate their peers and family on the importance of planning for the future.

Allowing students the opportunity to learn about this uniting humanistic topic through a formal education, based on my own personal experience with this class, is incredibly eye opening and enjoyable. In the Death and Dying class provided by the University of Wyoming, we were able to learn about war related psychological issues, role-play physicians making difficult ethical decisions, watch documentaries regarding the questionable experience of elderly in nursing homes and hospice care, discuss abortion, prepare our own legal documents regarding end of life care, read literature regarding individual experience with the dying process (including the incredible novel Tuesdays with Morrie), learn the various cultural and religious interpretations of the meaning of life and death, as well as learn how to approach the very difficult conversation of death with our own loved ones.

Based on my own experience in a death education class, as well as the incredible need for the social acceptance of discussion of death and dying related content, it seems odd that so few colleges offer a formal death and dying class. I highly recommend that other universities follow in the footsteps of the University of Wyoming and incorporate death education as an option for their students to choose.