Dane Bohlmann
English 101
Observing Education
Teachers have a huge power in their hands. The power to mold their impressionable students into not only better scholars, but better overall humans. It is a teachers responsibility to his or her students to get through to the kids and make sure they are learning. In the movies Stand and Deliver directed by Ramon Menendez and The Dead Poets Society directed by Peter Weir there are two extremely passionate teachers who work to inspire their students to be the best they can be. A successful teacher is one who is full of passion to teach and help others, but more importantly has the skill to inspire students to reach their full potential.
In the film The Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating is the new English teacher at the prestigious Welton Academy in New England. The Headmaster states in the opening ceremony that Welton is the best preparatory school in the United States and reminds the students of the four pillars of Welton; Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. Welton Academy is a strict, religious boarding school meant to prepare the students for their futures. Most of the students in the academy come from wealthy families that have a long tradition of attending Welton, then ivy league schools and they are pressured by their parents to follow in their footsteps. The parents of the students already have most of their lives’ planned out for them and don’t take into consideration what the kids want to do. Stand and Deliver takes place at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, it is almost the exact opposite of the setting in Dead Poets Society. The students at Garfield come from a much poorer and hostile environment then the kids from Welton Academy. Students at Garfield don’t have the slightest clue as to what they want to do in the future and for most college wasn’t even an option. Mr. Escalante is faced with kids who have little motivation and seriousness to learn. Due to poor academic results, the school district is on the verge of being shut down. Mr. Escalante’s goal is to mold the troublesome teens he is teaching into dedicated students.
At Welton Academy on the first day of school we get to see the other teachers lecture from the textbooks and then Mr. Keating unorthodox approach. On that first day Mr. Keating takes the kids out of the classroom and inspires them to Carpe Diem, which means ‘seize the day’ and to live their lives boldly. Mr. Keating relates to the kids by telling them he also went to Welton and knew what schooling was like and secretly giving the students the Dead Poets Society book so they could re-start the club and have more free thinking. The way Mr. Keating teaches is unconventional for the time era. While the other teachers lecture their students in the classroom Mr. Keating has them outside reciting poetry and kicking soccer balls. Mr. Keating also had his students rip out the first chapter in their textbooks and march outside to teach them about freedom of expression and non-conformity. One lesson he taught his class was to look at the world from a different angle by making them stand on his desk and see for themselves. Mr. Keating lessons were all about thinking for yourself and being an individual despite what their parents want. Not only does Mr. Keating help his students inside the class but also outside of the classroom. Mr. Keating convinces one of his students to tell his strict and authoritarian father that he enjoys acting and wants to continue doing it despite his fathers wishes. After the play the dad takes his son home and tells him he is going to be pulled from Welton and put into military school where he will go to Yale and become a doctor, no excuses. This is too much for the student and he commits suicide with his father’s gun. The tragedy is blamed on Mr. Keating because he was the one that convinced the victim to stay in the play. Mr. Keating was fired from Welton and as he was leaving his classroom for the last time his students stood up on their desk and called Mr. Keating ‘Oh Captain, My Captain’ even in the face of getting expelled. This was their way of showing Mr. Keating that he had inspired them to be individuals who thought for themselves and that they knew the death wasn’t his fault.
Up until Mr. Escalante arrived as their teacher, none of the other teachers or the principal believed that the students could do anything, the students did not care about their studies because no one else did. It is Mr. Escalante’s belief that the expectations of the students from the school is so low they don’t care and the students will respond to higher expectations. Mr. Escalante had success with his students because he played the role that most young kids want in their life, someone who understands them and is willing to push them to do better. Like Mr. Keating did, Mr. Escalante tries to relate to the kids on a more personal level. Mr. Escalante has a lot of interaction with the students outside of class. He prevents a student from getting into a fight, convinces one girl’s father to let her return to school, gives everyday advice and even lets his students study in his home. This makes Mr. Escalante easy to view as a caring person that truly wants to help, not just another authoritative figure. To further help his students and relate better, Mr. Escalante uses humor and props to show the abstract concepts in math he was trying to teach all while showing how necessary math is in our everyday lives. Mr. Escalante becomes a solid role model that is always there to help his students, a role missing in many of the students’ lives.
The differences from Welton Academy and Garfield High School are like night and day, but what is similar is how Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante teach. Both teachers have a strong passion for what they do. Mr. Keating was asked by a student why he chooses Welton because he could do anything he wanted, his reply was he loves teaching and doesn’t want to be anything else. Mr. Escalante left his older higher paying job to teach math and makes it his personal mission to change the system and challenge his students to a higher level of excellence. If these two men did not have the passion they did, their effect on their students would not have been as drastic. Both teachers used unconventional teaching methods to teach their students. This broke their mindset that learning didn’t have to be dull and boring but could also be fun and rewarding. The ability the both teachers had to relate with their students made it easier for them to teach. A student is way more likely to listen and learn from someone who knows where they are coming from then from a teacher who distances themselves and distinguishes themselves as superior to their students. Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante were both extremely inspirational to their students. The Academy students adopted ‘Carpe Diem’ as their motto and the Garfield High students were inspired by Mr. Escalante to beat the stereotype they had as kids who cannot be taught. Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante used their influence as teachers to help form their students into better scholars, friends and human beings, a goal that all teachers should have in common.
Work Cited
Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramon Menendez. Perf. Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips American Playhouse, 1988. DVD.
Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke. Touchstone Pictures, 1989. DVD.
