Chinese colleges and universities offer "death education class" to guide students to fear life
Chinanews.com, Jinan, April 2nd, title: Chinese colleges and universities offer "death education courses" to guide students in awe of life
Author Zhao Xiao
The Chinese traditional festival Ching Ming Festival is approaching, and the "death education courses" and "life education courses" offered by major colleges and universities have attracted widespread attention.
Write epitaphs, visit funeral homes, observe the cremation of remains... According to incomplete statistics, more than 20 Chinese universities, including Peking University, Shandong University, Guangzhou University, etc., offer death education-related courses with flexible and diverse teaching methods. , To guide students to face death and fear life.
Data map: Students visit the ashes storage room in the funeral home.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
As one of the earliest universities in China to carry out the "Death Education Course", Shandong University has been offering courses for 14 consecutive years. Each autumn semester, Shandong University offers an elective course of "Death Culture and Life and Death Education" for clinical medicine students.
"It's called'talking about death', it's actually'talking about life'".
The main lecturer of the course and associate professor of the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Ethics of Shandong University School of Basic Medicine, Wang Yunling, said in an interview with a reporter from Chinanews.com on April 2 that some students were found to be afraid and anxious about the anatomy of the body, and some students were taboo to talk about it. Death, this all stems from their failure to form a correct view of life and death, and they urgently need to "make up lessons" in this regard.
According to Wang Yunling, students can openly discuss death topics in class, such as death with dignity, tranquillity, and euthanasia.
He will also set issues and contexts to allow students to express their opinions freely in the form of flipped classrooms and mixed teaching.
Considering that only the theoretical education is carried out, it is difficult for the students to have a deep feeling, he also led the students to the funeral home to visit the complete funeral process.
"Let students stand at the end of their lives to reconsider and plan their own lives. View life from death, live toward death, and establish a correct outlook on life and death."
Data map: Students visit the urn display area in the funeral home.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"As a medical student, it is inevitable to face the departure of life in the future career. If you can't view death in a correct way, you will not be able to calmly engage in this career." The clinical clinic of Shandong University School of Basic Medicine who once took the "Death Education Course" Medical student Ouyang (pseudonym) told reporters that after listening to teacher Wang Yunling's class, she has a deeper understanding of death. She is no longer as afraid of death as before, and she has learned to face it with the mentality of letting it go. .
Liu Yao (pseudonym), who is from the same major as Ouyang, said that whenever she reads news about young people committing suicide or hurting others due to conflicts and conflicts, she feels sorry and saddened.
"They lack a sense of reverence for life, regard death as a form of relief, and fail to properly handle the relationship between life and death, and fail to appreciate the preciousness of life and the meaning of life. This course taught me how to cherish every day and life in the moment. Everyone I meet in."
Data map: The students wear yellow ribbons to express their grief for the deceased.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
"Not only young students need to take this class, but also primary and secondary school students and ordinary people should receive life education in a timely manner." Wang Yunling believes that the current phenomenon of some young people taking drugs, suicide or hurting others in society reflects the lack of death education.
It is very necessary to carry out death education for the whole people and the whole society to help the public establish a scientific and correct view of life and death, understand the value of life, learn to respect and revere life, so as to reduce the incidence of malignant incidents.
Wang Yunling also mentioned that from the perspective of the overall social development, China's population aging is accelerating, and the pressure on elderly care is increasing.
The elderly, especially the disabled or severely ill, how to treat and take care of them at the end of their lives involves issues such as life dignity and the quality of death.
The National Health and Medical Commission of China is vigorously promoting tranquillity and care throughout the country. It values life and recognizes that death is a normal process. It is necessary to minimize the physical pain of dying patients, so that they can walk in peace and dignity.
"Universal death education is conducive to improving people's resistance to frustration and pressure in the face of death, and a more objective view of life and death."
"Although there are about 20 colleges and universities in China offering death education-related courses, compared with the overall development scale of domestic colleges and universities and the number of college students, such popularity is far from enough." Wang Yunling said, the theory of death education in China The methods and practice models need to be further enriched and improved. In the future, they should be oriented towards the whole society, covering the whole process from elementary school, middle school to university.
"Guide the public to get rid of inherent ideas, face death squarely, overcome fear, and at the same time recognize and appreciate the value of life, and better cherish and respect the lives of themselves and others." (End)