In this movie Mr. Keating applies progressive and uniquely creative methods to teaching poetry. His physical exercises aid exuberantly youthful young men, who would naturally find the close, sedate quarters of a classroom confining, to express themselves both physically and intellectually. By removing his students from the classroom Mr. Keating takes them out of the potentially mundane and expected quarters of their lives and into a psychologically luminous space. Over time a space can accumulate all the psychological associations of daily life and thought can become fettered to those associations—a mental rut mirroring a physical space that no longer wows the imagination and incites the senses. Free thought can be encouraged by a new environment. With the application of the Socratic method (a more traditional approach today but radical for its time when lectures were more common) he creates a self-driven learning environment. Students are expected to come up with their own answers based on self-study and individual responsibility to their own work-ethic. He skillfully guides even rebels like Charlie who refuse to cooperate by acknowledging his right to be independent, which deprives him of his immediate need to rebel, and praising him for (inadvertently) doing just as he should. One of the most striking examples is when Mr. Keating agrees that Charlie’s “right not to walk…illustrates the point” of his lesson on poetic meter and individuality. Each student is afforded a new approach, rather than a “cookie-cutter” learning progrom. For instance, Todd is shy and emotionally distressed. The same approach Mr. Keaton uses for Charlie would be ineffectual in Todd’s case. Instead Mr. Keaton brings him out of his shell with an in class exercise that temporarily blinds him, metaphorically and literally, to his classmates’ expectations as well as their physical presence. This allows him to express himself and gain confidence, a much more valuable skill than learning lines alone and one that might not be fostered in a traditional environment. When tradition stifles more than aids, when art is measured rather than experienced whole-heartedly with a physical and an intellectual appreciation, it kills the creative process. Human expression, Mr. Keating implies, breaks blind consensus and creates anew. A fresh “perspective” on daily life, however mundane, can be achieved through each unique student. College prep is all very well and good, but if it is achieved at the expense of free thought, a skill all adults must possess if they are to survive, then the preparation has failed. Mr. Keating says as much when he speaks to the headmaster. If I had a university of my own students would be encouraged to learn holistically. Exams and papers will be balanced with typed responses and projects so students who learn best with exams and those who excel with more hands-on projects will both benefit. Extracurricular activities would also be encouraged as class time and money allows. They would be taught to speak well, in that they would express themselves based on what they think about the material they research/study/read, not repeat opinions they hear from others without due thought to their own. That is not to say they should be encouraged to rebel for rebellion’s sake or that they should look to themselves at the expense of good counsel or experience, but they should be encouraged by degrees to rely on their own judgment.
Self-knowledge is just as important as scholastic achievement, if not moreso; a person can learn to quote the Declaration of Independence but if s/he does not know what it means, if they are unaware of its import for themselves, and are incapable of forming an individual expression of their own thoughts on its contents, the scholastic institutions of their lives have failed them. The world is not always kind and rarely simple; those who cannot examine the evidence before them, weigh all their options, and make decisions are not fully equipped to succeed—teachers like Mr. Keaton try to remedy this misfortune. I want to help my students hone these skills so they can achieve the most for themselves. I especially liked Mr. Keaton’s approach to individual learning. He appreciated the needs of certain students and was flexible enough in his own teaching methods to be able to help those who required a more mainstream, traditional style with lectures and readings, as well as those students like, Todd and Meeks, who learned best with a more unique, active approach that took into account their own intellectual and psychological abilities. I think one of the reasons the school did not appreciate/ achieve as much as it could for its students was the lack of parental involvement. I realize a boarding school is not the same as a public institution in that it is more insulated from the outside world, however parents should be involved in their children’s education and this applies to the institutions that engage their offspring as much as it does to their children. If parents demand to know how classes are taught as well as monitor and bolster their own students’ achievements through positive reinforcement and an active involvement in education then the institution will raise its intellectual standards and become more efficient and holistic in its approach. Free thought will be encouraged rather than stifled. Just because something has been done for years does not mean it is any more effective than a new idea. It might not work but that is no reason not to try. In Dead Poets’ Society the students themselves illustrated an interesting point. Students do not learn in a vacuum. Individual learning occurs in that each student is unique and at some point studies alone, however, we are influenced by those around us. The boys in the Society learned from each other and encouraged each other to learn inside and outside of school. They helped each other study, fostered extracurricular intellectual growth, and freedom of self-expression in music, drama, and literature.
Mr. Keaton’s unorthodox methods of free thought based on past intellectual references fostered a supportive, exploratory environment for his students’ intellectual and academic success. He encouraged the students to find their own means of self-expression and individuality so they could become the men they wanted to be, especially for Neil. While Mr. Keaton was unaware of the circumstances of Neil’s life, his advice was sound. What happened after is not his fault; rather it was the unfortunate result of a deeply dysfunctional parent-child relationship Mr. Keaton could not have helped had he known it existed given the current scholastic and societal environment. When learners are not expected to excel they will conform to the standards set for them and most will not rise above that standard without encouragement from supportive members of their communities: parents, teachers, other students. When students are taught to achieve, not only for societal approbation but, more importantly, for themselves they can achieve more intellectually and psychologically than they might otherwise. Encouragement for the purpose of self-knowledge as well as intellectual and practical success will create adults who learn for themselves and take an active pleasure in doing so. Life-long students should be our goal. Learning does not end at the classroom door when the final bell rings, rather learning continues throughout life as we interact with the people and the world around us. The wo/man who ceases to think is dead.
Part of my #5: Community plays a part in this movie like how actors play a part in a play. The parents play a role in their children’s lives without actually being there in real life. The faculty is there to teach and that is about all they do, unlike Mr. Keating. The school and families cultivate a false reality for these boys because clearly everything is not as perfect as it really is. The relationship between the community and the student is somewhat poor because the students are mostly cut off from outside contacts and therefore support is rare in the form of more than networking visitations or family functions. The student/teacher relationship depicts a symbiotic relationship where both the teacher and student feed off of one another’s ideas. It is a healthy, ideal relationship on paper, but it appears that this relationship can be taken too far when a teacher does not also explain how consequences can affect the lives of people who challenge the system. Always a good watch :)
My #6: Sometimes when we expect too much too soon it is an overload for a child. Even though these parents had already planned their lives through their graduation from college, it did not allow them to enjoy their childhood. I think the death of Neil shows there needs to be an equal balance between high expectations and the freedom of individuality and mistakes. I think had Neil learned a little bit more about juggling all facets of his personality, he might have been more prepared to tell his dad what he wanted whenever he asked him. But, all the school did was teach the students how to be well-behaved and intelligent. The boys were always doing what they wanted when no one was looking which only puts more stress on them to balance a lie and who they really want to be. All emphasis cannot be on just doing well in school but to teach them how to be okay with themselves and deal with what may happen when others don’t agree. I think there is a lot of literature that could demonstrate that kind of conflict.
This has always been one of my favorite movies. I saw it for the first time in my 10th grade class. Great movie :)
Finally! I can post a comment! Stupid google blogger wouldn't let me post for three days!
Here is my answer to number 3:
Mr. Keating reminded me a lot about the teacher that I wanted to be. When I was in high school, about these boys’ age, I had an AP Literature teacher who acted just like Mr. Keating. And of course, she TERRIFIED students. She meant business when it came to work. But she didn’t just have us read, she had us talk in depth about these pieces that we read. She came up with fun activities such as re-enactments of the plays we read, or trivia games, or even a song that helped us remember the steps of writing an essay. So I’ve always wanted to model myself after her as a teacher, which is why I was reminded so much of her while watching Mr. Keating in the movie.
I want to be the teacher that challenges her studnets to think beyond the box. See, my teacher put us in time crunches, put us under pressure, because she wanted to show us WHAT we could do. How creative we were. Which is what Mr. Keating did. He put Todd on the spot so that he could cause that creativity to just surface under all that pressure. No, I'm not going to badger or frighten my students, but I want to be the teacher who by the end of the day, the students can say "wow, she really challenged me today" or "because of her, i learned more about myself." Those boys in the movie learned more about themselves through Mr. Keating's teachings than they ever did just reading a book. And that is who i want to be in the classroom.
Dead Poets Society suggests a truly interactive classroom. It also explores a personal relationship between the teacher and the students. Dead Poets Society introduces unconventional teaching methods as a way to engage uninterested or intimidated students. I realize that this is entirely unreasonable, but in my ideal society everyone would be as educated as Mr. Keating. I am obsessed with his fictional ability to quote and apply poetry to every situation. I vow that one day I will know Whitman as well as Mr. Keating. In my utopia I would instill in each educator the passion and compassion that Keating portrays throughout the movie. His emotional investment in his students is a vital part of their success as a class. Carpe diem! As I said, I hope to be brilliant like Mr. Keating, but most importantly I want to be the role model that he became for his students. I want to teach young minds to question rather than passively accept the world that they live in. Dead Poets Society opened my eyes to the delicate psyche of the American teenager. I do hope to be a major influence in the lives of high schoolers, but with influence comes responsibility. As an educator where do you draw the line between supportive and too involved? Mr. Keating’s involvement in his student’s life ultimately leads to his suicide. There is no doubt that Mr. Keating’s advice to Neil Perry was honest and accurate, however the consequences of his involvement were drastic and irrevocable. Would Neil Perry have been better off living a lie that would please his father? Is Mr. Keating responsible for his suicide?
In this movie Mr. Keating applies progressive and uniquely creative methods to teaching poetry. His physical exercises aid exuberantly youthful young men, who would naturally find the close, sedate quarters of a classroom confining, to express themselves both physically and intellectually. By removing his students from the classroom Mr. Keating takes them out of the potentially mundane and expected quarters of their lives and into a psychologically luminous space. Over time a space can accumulate all the psychological associations of daily life and thought can become fettered to those associations—a mental rut mirroring a physical space that no longer wows the imagination and incites the senses. Free thought can be encouraged by a new environment.
ReplyDeleteWith the application of the Socratic method (a more traditional approach today but radical for its time when lectures were more common) he creates a self-driven learning environment. Students are expected to come up with their own answers based on self-study and individual responsibility to their own work-ethic.
He skillfully guides even rebels like Charlie who refuse to cooperate by acknowledging his right to be independent, which deprives him of his immediate need to rebel, and praising him for (inadvertently) doing just as he should. One of the most striking examples is when Mr. Keating agrees that Charlie’s “right not to walk…illustrates the point” of his lesson on poetic meter and individuality.
Each student is afforded a new approach, rather than a “cookie-cutter” learning progrom. For instance, Todd is shy and emotionally distressed. The same approach Mr. Keaton uses for Charlie would be ineffectual in Todd’s case. Instead Mr. Keaton brings him out of his shell with an in class exercise that temporarily blinds him, metaphorically and literally, to his classmates’ expectations as well as their physical presence. This allows him to express himself and gain confidence, a much more valuable skill than learning lines alone and one that might not be fostered in a traditional environment.
When tradition stifles more than aids, when art is measured rather than experienced whole-heartedly with a physical and an intellectual appreciation, it kills the creative process. Human expression, Mr. Keating implies, breaks blind consensus and creates anew. A fresh “perspective” on daily life, however mundane, can be achieved through each unique student. College prep is all very well and good, but if it is achieved at the expense of free thought, a skill all adults must possess if they are to survive, then the preparation has failed. Mr. Keating says as much when he speaks to the headmaster.
If I had a university of my own students would be encouraged to learn holistically. Exams and papers will be balanced with typed responses and projects so students who learn best with exams and those who excel with more hands-on projects will both benefit. Extracurricular activities would also be encouraged as class time and money allows. They would be taught to speak well, in that they would express themselves based on what they think about the material they research/study/read, not repeat opinions they hear from others without due thought to their own. That is not to say they should be encouraged to rebel for rebellion’s sake or that they should look to themselves at the expense of good counsel or experience, but they should be encouraged by degrees to rely on their own judgment.
Self-knowledge is just as important as scholastic achievement, if not moreso; a person can learn to quote the Declaration of Independence but if s/he does not know what it means, if they are unaware of its import for themselves, and are incapable of forming an individual expression of their own thoughts on its contents, the scholastic institutions of their lives have failed them. The world is not always kind and rarely simple; those who cannot examine the evidence before them, weigh all their options, and make decisions are not fully equipped to succeed—teachers like Mr. Keaton try to remedy this misfortune.
ReplyDeleteI want to help my students hone these skills so they can achieve the most for themselves. I especially liked Mr. Keaton’s approach to individual learning. He appreciated the needs of certain students and was flexible enough in his own teaching methods to be able to help those who required a more mainstream, traditional style with lectures and readings, as well as those students like, Todd and Meeks, who learned best with a more unique, active approach that took into account their own intellectual and psychological abilities.
I think one of the reasons the school did not appreciate/ achieve as much as it could for its students was the lack of parental involvement. I realize a boarding school is not the same as a public institution in that it is more insulated from the outside world, however parents should be involved in their children’s education and this applies to the institutions that engage their offspring as much as it does to their children.
If parents demand to know how classes are taught as well as monitor and bolster their own students’ achievements through positive reinforcement and an active involvement in education then the institution will raise its intellectual standards and become more efficient and holistic in its approach. Free thought will be encouraged rather than stifled. Just because something has been done for years does not mean it is any more effective than a new idea. It might not work but that is no reason not to try.
In Dead Poets’ Society the students themselves illustrated an interesting point. Students do not learn in a vacuum. Individual learning occurs in that each student is unique and at some point studies alone, however, we are influenced by those around us. The boys in the Society learned from each other and encouraged each other to learn inside and outside of school. They helped each other study, fostered extracurricular intellectual growth, and freedom of self-expression in music, drama, and literature.
Mr. Keaton’s unorthodox methods of free thought based on past intellectual references fostered a supportive, exploratory environment for his students’ intellectual and academic success. He encouraged the students to find their own means of self-expression and individuality so they could become the men they wanted to be, especially for Neil. While Mr. Keaton was unaware of the circumstances of Neil’s life, his advice was sound. What happened after is not his fault; rather it was the unfortunate result of a deeply dysfunctional parent-child relationship Mr. Keaton could not have helped had he known it existed given the current scholastic and societal environment.
ReplyDeleteWhen learners are not expected to excel they will conform to the standards set for them and most will not rise above that standard without encouragement from supportive members of their communities: parents, teachers, other students. When students are taught to achieve, not only for societal approbation but, more importantly, for themselves they can achieve more intellectually and psychologically than they might otherwise. Encouragement for the purpose of self-knowledge as well as intellectual and practical success will create adults who learn for themselves and take an active pleasure in doing so. Life-long students should be our goal. Learning does not end at the classroom door when the final bell rings, rather learning continues throughout life as we interact with the people and the world around us. The wo/man who ceases to think is dead.
Part of my #5:
ReplyDeleteCommunity plays a part in this movie like how actors play a part in a play. The parents play a role in their children’s lives without actually being there in real life. The faculty is there to teach and that is about all they do, unlike Mr. Keating. The school and families cultivate a false reality for these boys because clearly everything is not as perfect as it really is. The relationship between the community and the student is somewhat poor because the students are mostly cut off from outside contacts and therefore support is rare in the form of more than networking visitations or family functions. The student/teacher relationship depicts a symbiotic relationship where both the teacher and student feed off of one another’s ideas. It is a healthy, ideal relationship on paper, but it appears that this relationship can be taken too far when a teacher does not also explain how consequences can affect the lives of people who challenge the system.
Always a good watch :)
My #6:
ReplyDeleteSometimes when we expect too much too soon it is an overload for a child. Even though these parents had already planned their lives through their graduation from college, it did not allow them to enjoy their childhood. I think the death of Neil shows there needs to be an equal balance between high expectations and the freedom of individuality and mistakes. I think had Neil learned a little bit more about juggling all facets of his personality, he might have been more prepared to tell his dad what he wanted whenever he asked him. But, all the school did was teach the students how to be well-behaved and intelligent. The boys were always doing what they wanted when no one was looking which only puts more stress on them to balance a lie and who they really want to be. All emphasis cannot be on just doing well in school but to teach them how to be okay with themselves and deal with what may happen when others don’t agree. I think there is a lot of literature that could demonstrate that kind of conflict.
This has always been one of my favorite movies. I saw it for the first time in my 10th grade class. Great movie :)
Finally! I can post a comment! Stupid google blogger wouldn't let me post for three days!
ReplyDeleteHere is my answer to number 3:
Mr. Keating reminded me a lot about the teacher that I wanted to be. When I was in high school, about these boys’ age, I had an AP Literature teacher who acted just like Mr. Keating. And of course, she TERRIFIED students. She meant business when it came to work. But she didn’t just have us read, she had us talk in depth about these pieces that we read. She came up with fun activities such as re-enactments of the plays we read, or trivia games, or even a song that helped us remember the steps of writing an essay. So I’ve always wanted to model myself after her as a teacher, which is why I was reminded so much of her while watching Mr. Keating in the movie.
I want to be the teacher that challenges her studnets to think beyond the box. See, my teacher put us in time crunches, put us under pressure, because she wanted to show us WHAT we could do. How creative we were. Which is what Mr. Keating did. He put Todd on the spot so that he could cause that creativity to just surface under all that pressure. No, I'm not going to badger or frighten my students, but I want to be the teacher who by the end of the day, the students can say "wow, she really challenged me today" or "because of her, i learned more about myself." Those boys in the movie learned more about themselves through Mr. Keating's teachings than they ever did just reading a book. And that is who i want to be in the classroom.
Dead Poets Society suggests a truly interactive classroom. It also explores a personal relationship between the teacher and the students. Dead Poets Society introduces unconventional teaching methods as a way to engage uninterested or intimidated students.
ReplyDeleteI realize that this is entirely unreasonable, but in my ideal society everyone would be as educated as Mr. Keating. I am obsessed with his fictional ability to quote and apply poetry to every situation. I vow that one day I will know Whitman as well as Mr. Keating. In my utopia I would instill in each educator the passion and compassion that Keating portrays throughout the movie. His emotional investment in his students is a vital part of their success as a class. Carpe diem!
As I said, I hope to be brilliant like Mr. Keating, but most importantly I want to be the role model that he became for his students. I want to teach young minds to question rather than passively accept the world that they live in. Dead Poets Society opened my eyes to the delicate psyche of the American teenager. I do hope to be a major influence in the lives of high schoolers, but with influence comes responsibility. As an educator where do you draw the line between supportive and too involved? Mr. Keating’s involvement in his student’s life ultimately leads to his suicide. There is no doubt that Mr. Keating’s advice to Neil Perry was honest and accurate, however the consequences of his involvement were drastic and irrevocable. Would Neil Perry have been better off living a lie that would please his father? Is Mr. Keating responsible for his suicide?