Education Philosophy

I believe a teacher should be a friend to a student not a source of stress and anxiety. Throughout

high school I became friends with all of my teachers. I was the kid who would always raised his hand and

at least try to contribute to the lesson or the problem on the board. As a result I received much hate form

my fellow students who all assumed that I was kissing up to the teacher. In responded, many of the

teachers would say, “we don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute, we read and write poetry because

we are members of the human race and the human race is filled with passion” with the catchphrase,

“Carpe Diem” he jumps onto desks, crouches on floors, and is exuberant in everything he does.

Mr.Keating pushing the envelope when it comes to being a typical professor. He inspires his students to

form a club where they read poetry in a cave to each other, “the dead poets were dedicated to sucking the

marrow out of life” . He breaks his students out of their shells with humor and humility. He believes the

passion each of them has in their for the art of poetry should be utilized outside of the classroom. He

demolishes the professional relationship between student and teacher and seems to view his students as

equal pursuers of human exploration.

I believe Mr. Keating is a very effective teacher. His students carry his lessons with them outside

of the classroom. One of them, Neal, even breaks his father’s orders and pursues his desire to become an

actor. Scoring the lead in a production of a Midsummer Night’s Dream. I believe the greatest thing a

teacher can do is inspire a student to pursue a discipline on their own time following their own desires.

Mr. Keating was effective in igniting the fire inside his students to advance their knowledge on their own

through pleasure instead of fear of a failing grade. A teachers effectiveness cannot be rated by the grades

his students. A teachers effectiveness, i believe, is rated by how the teacher inspires his students to

continue their education outside of the classroom.

Mr. Keating’s students are highly developed even before they step foot into his classroom. The

preparatory academy is very strict in the way the students are controlled and educated. Physically the

students are up to par with the normal level. Socially they students may be a little bit below level as they

seem to be a little bit sheltered in the movie. Cognitively the students i would say are ahead of the curve.

This can be made solely based on the preparatory academy. Being a very exclusive and high end academy
to get in, all the students are very high achieving and intellectual. The level of cognitive development that

the students are at allows Mr.Keating to sort of ignore the typical classroom syllabus. Keating knows the

students can handle the class on a technical standpoint. I think the students are severely under level in the

category of emotional maturity. Since their lives have been so sheltered and their childhoods have been

reduced to an unhealthy focus on studying and scoolwork, they are more susceptible to Mr.Keating’s

emotionally overpowering lectures. Mr. Keating sees they’re lack of emotional maturity and seizes it.

There is a moment in the film where the emotional immaturity of Neal is extremely apparent. After Neal

disobeys his father and auditions for a roll in a play. When his father comes down to the performance and

drags him out by his arm, proclaims that he will be withdrawn from the academy and enrolled in a

military academy, Neal has a very immature reaction. As a response Neal kills himse! This is an intense

reaction that i believe somes from his emotional immaturity.

I think Mr. Keating’s model is very close to what the type of attitude i would express in my own

classroom. I believe the job if a teacher is not to get the most A’s or pass the most exams but to inspire

their hunger for knowledge and make them effectively teach themselves outside of the classroom. If you

can encourage a student to sort of teach himself he won’t need a teacher anymore. I remember when i was

in third grade, i used to go home and watch the history channel and binge watch documentaries instead of

watching typical kid TV shows. Because of this inspiration that i got from my teacher and this fire that

was ignited by her i no longer need a teacher to learn about history. I will gladly read a textbook. In my

opinion, that is the true job of a teacher. This cycle of a student finding motivation through being self

taught, i believe, is a part of motivational theory. It reminds me of the saying if you give a man a fish you

feed him for a day, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a ,lifetime. In a similar way, if you force a

student through a lesson, you’ve taught him or a day, if you inspire a student through a lesson, you’ve

taught him for a lifetime. Mr. Keating is my inspiration as a teacher. I want my students to love learning

and all it has to offer, rather than viewing it as a choir and something to be dreaded. Mr. Keating is my

captain.
P.S. Let me explain that captain thing real quick. In the movie the students us the saying “oh captain my

captain” to express their love and gratitude towards mr. Keating, that’s where i got it from.