Status: 20.05.2022 14:21
With a special project, volunteers in the Ostholstein district convey the topics of death and grief, especially in primary schools. Her approach: Death loses its horror the more people talk about it.
It is a sad subject that sooner or later awaits us all. A loved one can suddenly be taken from life. Dealing with this is often not easy for many adults. But maybe it would be different if they practiced a different way of dealing with death when they were children? This is the basic idea of the so-called suitcase project, an initiative of the Schleswig-Holstein Hospice and Palliative Care Association.
Talking about emotions is the starting point
The project starts already in primary schools, for example in the second grade of primary school in Wasserquell in Oldenburg in Holstein. Anne Przibilka, Irmgard Honalla and Birgitt Rathke stand at the blackboard in the classroom and greet the children. The three volunteers have an old leather suitcase with them. Birgitt Rathke places it locked on the teacher’s desk. The kids know the three women from last year, where they were still in first grade. One child remembers: “We learned what kind of emotions there are – for example, comfort, anger, sadness, anger.”
Nature as an example
Today it is about the cycle of nature and Birgitt Rathke has taken a story with her, which she pulls out of her suitcase: “Freddie, das Blatt”, it is called: In the spring he wakes up and notices that he dies along with many other leaves. hanging from a large tree in the park. Summer comes and then autumn, the leaves become colorful: “Freddie noticed that more and more leaves fell from the tree. At dusk came a wind which led Freddie away from his branch. He felt it give in, gently and calmly on Han floated on the ground, but above all he did not know that while he was still sleeping in the tree and in the ground, there were already new plans for the leaves in the spring, ”she says.
Stories help with reflection
Then the children have to think about the story. Birgitt Rathke asks: “What do you recognize in this story, what happens to the leaves and the tree?” Mia-Sophie explains: “I think if the story continued, Freddie would help the tree grow so that new leaves would come. The leaves fell because autumn has come and the leaves are falling.” The schoolgirl Zoé did not care so much about the story. The eight-year-old has linked something from his life to the Freddie sheet: “If someone were to fly away, it’s sometimes as if someone dies. My aunt also died a year ago, and I thought that was very sad. I was a lot with mom and cuddled a lot with my stuffed animals and my mom. “
Do not protect children from the subject
Finding comfort at a time when someone is dead is very important, says volunteer Birgitt Rathke. Parents should talk much more openly with their children about dying: “The children have all had experiences with it – even if it is the pet that died. They experience early loss, for example because friends move or because they themselves flee war zones. It is a problem that every child comes up with. Parents often feel the need to protect their children from it, but you can not because it is a recurring theme. “
death as a part of life
The 77-year-old volunteer Anne Przibilka thinks that the children are quite open to the topic of death: “We hope to bring the topic more into society in this way. We want to convey that death is a part of life and something completely normal. . is.” For eight-year-old David, death is a matter of course: “It also makes sense for the leaves, because if they fall from the tree and die because they can no longer get water from their roots, then they can no longer survive on earth. Then new leaves grow – so it’s a kind of cycle for the leaves. “
Dealing with the subject should become a matter of course
Birgitt Rathke is surprised at how openly some children are already talking about death, because it is not meant to be conveyed in their project for another year. There is talk of the death of an animal. All stories and materials related to the project are pulled out of the suitcase. In fourth grade, the volunteers then talk about life and why it is so worth living. This is how the children come out of the suitcase project positively. For Birgitt Rathke, the project is a matter of the heart. “If everyone treated this subject normally, then the grief would not be so sad anymore.” The suitcase project is now offered at several primary schools in the country. There are also projects at colleges.
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