Telegraph: Teacher asks pupils to make her coffin.
A Dutch teacher who has weeks to live is enlisting the help of the shop class.
"Life and death belong together," she said. "The children realised that when I explained it to them. I didn't want to be morbid about it, I wanted them to help me." I told them: 'Where I will go is much nicer than this world.' "None of the children considered it creepy or was afraid and nobody felt traumatised, she added. Parents of the children involved all gave their consent.
The kids may not be traumatized, but the professional grief counselors are:
Belgian therapists specialising in bereavement have complained that young children are not able to appreciate fully the consequences of the death of a friend, grandparent or parent.To which the teacher responds:
Miss Biggelaar, however, thinks that the uproar shows how necessary it is to tell children about death, mourning and pain. When her grandfather died, she felt very lonely and nobody spoke to her, she said. "As a little child, I stood with flowers at his grave and did not know why people were crying."Curtsy: Zadok the Roman, himself back from the grave...or somewheres, anyway.
