The Youths Perception of Death and The Religious Education

ABSTRACT

Life is inevitably related to death. Yet Koreans have considered it a taboo to talk about death. To lead a more meaningful and valuable life, it is very important to receive preparatory death education. Preparatory death education can exert a great influence on the youths in the process of forming their views of life and value systems. A survey conducted for this study reveals that Korean schools provide virtually no curriculum for the preparatory death education for the youths. The youths are not even allowed to watch death scenes or dead bodies, let alone the preparatory death education. Since the preparatory death education is in fact an education to lead a better life, it is very important to provide the youths with the preparatory death education. Preparatory death education or education for suicide prevention will help the youths appreciate the value of life, establish proper views of life and death, and learn how to aid people facing deaths. To properly conduct preparatory death education for the youths, it should be dealt with in the ethics courses of Middle and High schools, and in the religious courses of various missionary schools. This study conducted an investigation of the youths perception of death in an attempt to provide a proper direction for preparatory death education.