The best thing that mortuary schools could do would be to think about the people that we're

going to serve as professionals and how unique an individual each individual is.

When a director, when a funeral professional is able to create that environment of calm and

use language that is current and language that is validating, that really creates a sense of

ease for those families.

Welcome to Death in the Afternoon, the podcast from your favorite funeral reform nerds

at the Order of the Good Death. I am Caitlin Dodie, Founder of the Order, and today's episode

is about mortuary school, specifically what and who the curriculum may be leaving out.

Now, what is mortuary school? In many US states, mortuary school education is required to become

a licensed funeral director, and in all states you need to attend mortuary school if you want to

become an embalmer. Long gone are the days where mortuary school students are legacy sons of the

industry who grew up living above the local funeral parlor. For many, mortuary school is the

first exposure the students will have to the death industry and how it runs and what will be expected

of them. Now, when I was in mortuary school, hold on, stop, let's go back. I need the right voice

for this. Back when I was in mortuary school more than 12 years ago when young Barack Obama was

president. There were some big holes in the curriculum. I recall learning only briefly about

cremation, the most dominant growing force in the funeral industry. Forget covering green burial

and hung funerals. Processes like Aquamation and composting were but twinkles in their mother's

eyes. My sense is that in recent years, mortuary schools have aimed to do better around teaching

the different funeral options. But choices around the dead body are only one part of being a

funeral director. Especially in larger cities, funeral homes have to be ready to care for any family

that walks through the door, and there is a large diversity of families. What if that family

...