PERSON-CENTERED DEATH EDUCATION

A person-centered, humanities-based approach to teaching death and dying is described. It emphasizes ideas that students can make their own in developing self-understanding, understanding of others, and means of coping and of helping others in facing the mysteries of life, death, and suffering. Storytelling is central, rather than peripheral, to its effectiveness. Reflection on humanness (what it is to be a person) and humaneness (what it is to respect a person) is central. The article treats the evolution of the approach, the rationale for it, general pedagogical implications, and concrete illustrations of its use.