In 2023, five UK researchers made the case for teaching children about grief in school… before a death rather than waiting until after one. They ran no experiments of their own. Instead, they built a closing argument that calls every witness: the children who asked to learn this (it was their most-requested topic), the teachers who want to be better prepared, the majority of secondary students who said “no thank you” to the whole idea… and what thoughtful grief education does with an objection like that.
This exploration walks through the entire case in plain language:
Why put grief education in the curriculum?
How would it help?
What are schools teaching now?
Is the topic too sensitive for schools?
How would it be taught?
What might change if grief education was required?
We reveal where The Heartside Project aligns with the researchers and where we go further on our own. By the end, you’ll know the case well enough to argue for it… or argue with it.
The full exploration is below, print-safe and ready for your reading chair.
After our launch period, the Research… Explored section will move to the paid tier. But for now, it’s open to all subscribers. (Feel free to refer others to this page as a resource… but please do not share the PDFs themselves.)
→ The Research: The Case for Mandatory Grief Education (PDF)
→ The Research Explored: The Case For Grief Class - Research Explored (PDF)
Does required grief education sound like a good idea to you? Should it be voluntary for each school system? Something else?
Please leave a comment or shoot me a message... I read them all!
Let’s raise a generation that knows how to show up for hurting friends...
Jepper