Course Information:
CREMATION - Yesterday Today and Tomorrow
If history has taught us anything at all, it has taught us that it keeps repeating itself. At present, when we look at final disposition of human remains, there are those that will say, “Look at this, it’s new its innovative, it’s creative,” but it’s not. It has all been done in the past.
This course looks at the things we have done to memorialize our dead with the hope that you can see the direction our society is going. How you can understand the choices the families you serve make and the decisions they have come to, to make those choices.
Final disposition is very personal to each and every family you serve. They make their decisions based upon what they feel is right and proper. But we are a very social animal we like to share and learn. We also as a group don’t want to step out and be different, and if we do we tend to do it quietly, hoping no one is looking for fear someone might think we are strange or abnormal.
Now you might be saying, “That’s not true.” Look at the way those people dress, or the form of entertainment they like.” But, it is true, they are acting the way they do within their own social group where it is right and proper for them.
These same social groups, however, also cross borders. And, you as a funeral director unconsciously adapt every time a family walks in your door.
At the present time cremation and a more simple form of final disposition seems to be in vogue; and while you have little choice but to adapt you also need to understand how society reached this point. Will business decisions you make impede these changes or are you being forced to accept history’s cycle of events.
The Author
Richard A. Santore President Practicum Strategies attended City College of New York and the McAllister School of Embalming and has had a career in funeral service spanning over 40 years. Richard is a published author of numerous articles pertaining to the funeral profession. He also served as publisher of Today in Deathcare a national publication for funeral professionals as well as the Executive Director of Associated Funeral Directors International. Richard his served as a Curriculum Design and Implement Consultant within the Johnson City, Tennessee School System and a Guest Faculty Member at Virginia Intermont College, Bristol, Virginia.
