Eve Davies
Two-thirds of parents say that schools do not adequately prepare young people for life events, with more than half saying that lessons about death, finances, and sex should be prioritised, even at the expense of traditional lessons such as algebra and poetry.
Death, Bereavement and Grief
New research has found that only 29% of parents think schools are currently doing enough to ready students for life experiences, with as many as 53% revealing that they think schools should cover death, bereavement and grief as part of the curriculum.
A survey conducted by Project Eileen – a new charity working to advance the education of young people in school communities about death and grief, helping teachers and schools manage difficult and sensitive situations – was carried out on 1,174 parents in the UK during the latter half of last year.
Sex education and financial literacy is making its way into national curriculum, however, the organisation is now calling on teachers to consider their role in preparing young people for the future through enhanced curriculums and lesson plans with a particular focus on death, bereavement, and grief. Granted, these are some of the hardest topics to teach young people, and it is questionable whether dealing with such emotions can be taught as everybody experiences them in such different ways, but a bit of guidance could go a long way.
“I do not remember a single time during my school days where death and how to handle grief were properly discussed, leading to me feeling isolated amongst my peers.”
Founder and CEO of Project Eileen, Louise Poffley, said: “Young people face a huge range of pressures and schools should be doing all they can to prepare their students.
“We firmly believe that education should cover every aspect of life – death included – to build resilience and benefit mental health. We provide a readymade resource for schools to use to benefit not only the young people taking part in the programme, but also parents and teachers who often face the burden of having to cover these sensitive topics.”
She continued, “Death and grief are subjects often only covered in response to a tragic situation. At Project Eileen, however, we are passionate about making this conversation a proactive one and ensure we are preparing people for what is undoubtedly a certainty in life.”
The project spoke to Michael who was five years old when his father was diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer. He said: “As a boy of eleven, it was impossible for me to talk about my experiences with any of my peers, leading me to feel incredibly awkward when asked any questions about my parents.
“I changed from an adventurous and popular child at primary school to a quiet and reserved teenager, unable to talk about my feelings for fear of making others feel awkward. This stigma around death needs to be addressed from an early age, as I do not remember a single time during my school days where death and how to handle grief were properly discussed, leading to me feeling isolated amongst my peers.”
Other Subjects
Data also showed that life skills and preparing young people for life events are now favoured over more traditional lessons, with fewer than half of parents saying woodwork (38%), algebra (30%), geology (30%) and poetry (26%) should be taught in schools. Three quarters (72%) of parents said that they value personal finance lessons and almost two thirds (60%) say that sex education has a valid place on the syllabus.
“Young people need to develop a greater breadth of skills to evaluate and apply knowledge in ways that meet the new demands of our changing social and economic landscape.”
Inevitably, social and emotional needs are just as, if not more, important than academic success, and there should be a space to accommodate them on school syllabuses.
In our rapidly changing world, access to information is increasing, and memorizing facts is becoming less important. Although academic skills remain vital, they are not the be-all and end-all in competitive job markets. Employers are starting to value life experience and innovation over academic qualifications. Young people need to develop a greater breadth of skills to evaluate and apply knowledge in ways that meet the new demands of our changing social and economic landscape.
My Take
Upon leaving school I carried impressive marks across the board, however, in the years following I released that I knew little about personal finances outside of what I had briefly learned from my parents. I think that lessons engaging with tax, salaries, mortgages, and credit scores would have definitely been beneficial.
When I was in secondary school, we had what was called a PSE (Personal Social Education) Day each term. This day often involved professionals from the community visiting the school to give talks on various subjects including drugs and sex education.
“I believe that if these topics were built into the everyday curricula, they would be taken more seriously by school pupils as they would be just the same as every other lesson in the timetable.”
Other drab lessons about money and time management were given by our usual teachers and usually meant lots of messing around.
Although these days had the potential of being helpful, I think the fact that they were rare and sometimes poorly organised meant that pupils saw them as an opportunity to have a laugh with their friends rather than learn valuable life lessons.
Personally, I believe that if these topics were built into the everyday curricula, they would be taken more seriously by school pupils as they would be just the same as every other lesson in the timetable.
Featured image courtesy of NeONBRAND on Unsplash. No changes have been made to this image. Image license can be found here.
evedaviess
Eve is 22 years old and lives in Swansea. She has recently graduated from Cardiff University with a BA in English Literature. Eve's main interest is in lifestyle writing, particularly health, food, and travel.