Is „death subject to compulsory schooling“?

Dying is a part of life, a very important one. These are some of the principles that Cesta domů abides by and tries to teach society. During the socialist era, dying and death was a topic that was not often publicly discussed. However, since 1989, the situation has been gradually changing. Cesta domů has certainly contributed to raising awareness of this issue. 

Cesta domů has now come up with a new idea. So far, the organization has been trying to educate Czech citizens, specialists as well as laymen, on palliative care. Apart from the existing educational programs, Cesta domů would now like to bring up this difficult topic in discussions with kids. The organization is therefore planning to introduce a programme for schools. 

As a preliminary step, it conducted quite a large-scale survey in which it asked questions such as: Would teachers consider it meaningful to introduce the topic into the curriculum? Would the students’ parents agree with this? What do the kids think of the topic? Over a thousand teachers and over a thousand parents took part in the survey. 

The final report from this survey, bearing the humorous title “Is death subject to compulsory schooling?” was published in June 2021. 

Some of the general findings of the survey include: 

Both teachers and parents agree that death should be discussed more often and more openly. Over 70% of teachers think that the topic should be a part of the school curriculum. Half of them, however, do not feel prepared, only 5% have stated that they feel fully prepared for the task. As far as the parents are concerned, their approach was slightly more cautious. 80% have agreed that death should be discussed more openly in society, but over 30% did not wish for the topic to be part of the curriculum. Half of them have stated that they would feel apprehensive talking about this issue with their children and only 17% have discussed death with their child. Why is that the case? “If we are to change the way dying and death are perceived in Czech society, we cannot leave the kids out of it,” says Ruth Šormová, director of Cesta domů. 

Cesta domů has already held several discussions at schools and has proven time and time again that it is not difficult for children to bring up the topic of death. It turns out children are the ones who have no prejudices and therefore don’t have a problem talking about the things adults sometimes find difficult. 

It is clear that this kind of work makes sense and should be continued. Although there are still uncertainties about the appropriate age for starting these discussions, about what school subject the topic could be included in and who should be in charge of the teaching – whether it could simply be one of the teachers, or whether this needs to be a specialist – it is great that Cesta domů has opened the topic and is already doing a lot of work on it. Let us hope that the survey conducted by the organisation is not the end of the journey, but the beginning. 

Those who are members of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (and perhaps not only them) will be pleased to hear that since 2018, Ruth Šormová, member of the ECCB and former director of Diaconia’s Rolnička centre in Soběslav, has been the new director of Cesta domů. And since October 2020, Magdalena Ondrová, an ECCB minister, is the new spiritual worker. Our minister Pavel Pokorný, now the newly-elected Synodal Senior, was helping out in this position before Magdalena Ondrová took up the job.

Jana Plíšková