False Door Between Life and Death: Supporting Grieving Students, Teachers, and Parents

When a school community loses a child, parent, or teacher, the experience can be devastating to the whole community. Few things in life can prepare anyone for such a tragedy. Teachers and parents often struggle with how to speak with the children and may have important questions, such as:

Working through shock, grief, and even depression is a necessary step in life following a death in one's community.

Torin Finser--long-serving faculty member of the Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch University New England--presents stories, fairy tales, personal anecdotes, and even the Egyptian Book of the Dead to help children and adults deal with loss through spiritual insights into the meaning of death and suggestions for how a school community can build resilience by coming together after the loss of a colleague or fellow student.

The False Door between Life and Death is an indispensable resource to prepare teachers and parents who are likely to face a death at some time in their community.