{"id":1145,"date":"2015-09-26T18:46:25","date_gmt":"2015-09-26T18:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/?page_id=1145"},"modified":"2018-05-31T04:57:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T09:57:31","slug":"obituaries-teach-lifes-lessons","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/?page_id=1145","title":{"rendered":"Obituaries Teach Life’s Lessons"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Boston Herald<\/em>, February 28, 2015<\/a>)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always liked Fridays as much as the next guy, but this year I especially like them: every Friday, my students and I read an obituary together. If that sounds morbid, let me tell you what I tell the kids: an obituary is the story of a life; death is just the detail that gets it printed.<\/p>\n

How do I select the weekly life story we read? I<\/em> don\u2019t… I have other people do it for me. I\u2019ve been asking folks around town \u2014 elected officials, businesspeople, civic leaders, colleagues and friends \u2014 this question: if you could pick one person from the past whom you wish kids would learn about in school, who would it be?<\/p>\n

With their introductions, we\u2019ve made the acquaintance of Phyllis Jen, a beloved family doctor, Ruth Batson, a civil rights activist who helped desegregate our schools, and Tom White, a businessman who gave away his riches to the poor. In upcoming weeks we\u2019ll be reading about a firefighter, a judge, and a rowing coach. And I\u2019ve got lots more in my pile, all marvelously interesting \u2014 and inspiring. It\u2019s embarrassing to admit that I\u2019d never heard of most of these people before, but I\u2019m glad to have finally met them. And I\u2019m very pleased to introduce them to my students.<\/p>\n

For a teacher, obituaries are useful classroom texts. They offer short history lessons, excellent vocabulary (for example \u201cephemeral,\u201d and \u201cposterity\u201d), and align well with the new Common Core standards. But the greatest value of the obituaries we read is this: they\u2019re fine examples of how to live. We\u2019re not merely reading life stories, we\u2019re learning about lives worthy of emulation. By the end of the year, my students \u2014 and I \u2014 will have met dozens of excellent role models.<\/p>\n

Susan Cain, author of the book Quiet<\/em>, observes that instruction in America used to promote a culture of character, where \u201cwhat was important was the good deeds that you performed when nobody was looking.\u201d Now, she believes, we\u2019ve developed a culture of personality, in which \u2026 well, I don\u2019t know who the next celebrity will be, but I\u2019ll bet my next paycheck whoever it is won\u2019t have achieved fame by quietly performing good deeds.<\/p>\n

Too often those who deserve our admiration \u2014 and our emulation \u2014 remain unsung. It doesn\u2019t have to be this way. Obituaries provide character education with real<\/em> characters. These good men and women were part of our communities, and you\u2019ll meet them \u2014 if you ask to be introduced. Their obituaries present life stories of those who lived well, who did good deeds, and who offer virtuous examples to follow. By making the passed present, we not only honor these fine citizens, we do our civic duty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Boston Herald, February 28, 2015)   I\u2019ve always liked Fridays as much as the next guy, but this year I especially like them: every Friday, my students and I read an obituary together. If that sounds morbid, let me tell you what I tell the kids: an obituary is the story of a life; death … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Obituaries Teach Life’s Lessons”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":12,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1145","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1145"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3750,"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1145\/revisions\/3750"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/petersipe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}