Professor Wojciech Chudy’s Pedagogy of Dying

Abstract

Death as the inevitable perspective of every human being has to be realized and accepted. Professor Wojciech Chudy, noticing the absence of this dimension of education in pedagogy, stressed the need of addressing the issue of death theoretically and practically. The pedagogy of dying concerns on the one hand preparations to one’s own dignified death, and on the other experiencing the passing away of other people. Old age, disability and experiencing a terminal disease are special situations in human life that are significant in the context of finding fulfillment as a person and of being ready to die. The man is a rational and free being, and that is why he is able to assume an attitude towards the end of his own existence. Professor Chudy presented an approach to a man’s death permeated with a sense of order, acceptance, or even harmony (the approach of serenité).