雅思课外读物--Why and how should death be discussed in school?

2016年03月28日15:25 来源：互联网

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小站雅思君今天要和大家分享的雅思阅读材料叫做“Why and how should death be discussed in school在学校里，我们为什么要讨论死亡，并且应该如何去讨论？”这个问题很严肃，但其实这是每个人生来不得不面对的问题，一起看看这么严肃的话题别人怎么看待的吧！

How do you explain to hundreds of grade school children that a beloved kindergarten teacher with breast cancer is dying? A friend recently asked me for advice as this was happening at her child’s school. Both she and the school leadership felt lost. While the situation was tragic, I was glad they wanted to have the conversation. I was glad they were reaching out for help.

My friend’s request reminded me of when one of my son’s kindergarten classmates died of brain cancer. At the time, I asked my son if the teachers talked about his classmate’s death. He told me that the kids started to talk about it, but the teacher discouraged their conversation. I felt disappointment and concern. I thought teachers would appreciate the importance of allowing children to ask questions and express their feelings. While I talked with my son about his classmate, not all children have someone at home to whom they can turn.

As a physician who cares for families of dying children regularly, I am used to having these conversations, but I know most people are not. They may not know how to go about(对付，处理)it or know what is appropriate to say, especially with children. Bereavement(丧失亲人) expert, Kristin James, confirmed this. She provides guidance to hundreds of families in Illinois when their children die, and she said schools often ask her for help when either a classmate or adult in their community has died.

These conversations are important. But like life, death is ubiquitous(无处不在的). It’s on the local news and in any action movie a child is likely to see. Even Chris and Martin Kratt, lovable brothers from a popular PBS show who teach children about animals and nature, can’t escape the fact that one animal must die so that another can survive.

Further, most kids will endure the death of a family member or friend before their eighteenth birthday. Research in 2012 by the New York Life Foundation and the American Federation of Teachers found that 7 out of 10 teachers have a student in their classroom who is grieving(伤心，痛苦). With more than 25 shootings in K-12 schools so far this year, too many students have an up-close look at death in the classroom.

Aside from school shootings, some may wonder why schools should have any responsibility for helping children cope with death and dying. Surely the place for such conversations is at home, with the content and focus left to the discretion(判断;慎重)of parents or guardians. Parents should be the ones to impart(传授)their own values and cultural views about death on their children, such as if there is an afterlife or not. (除了校园枪击，有些人也许不明白，为什么学校有责任帮助孩子们应对死亡和临死这样的事情。在他们看来，这种对话当然应该在家里发生，该谈什么，重点谈什么，都应该让父母或监护人来确定，父母应该向孩子传达他们关于死亡的价值观和文化态度，比如是否有来生，等。)

I agree that parents and guardians should take the lead and talk to their children about death. But the reality is, children may still turn to trusted teachers, and the consequences of avoiding these conversations are significant. (但现实是，孩子们还是可能会向他们信任的老师求助，避免这些谈话的后果是很严重的。)Children affected by death can experience anxiety, depression, regression(倒退), nightmares, bed-wetting, and poor school performance.