Teachers are said to play one of the most
important roles in a child's life - aside from their parents. The impact a
teacher can have on a student was demonstrated
in many ways throughout the movies "Freedom Writers
and Dead Poet Society." Mr. Keating and Ms. Gruwell were both
good teachers. They were both compassionate and genuinely cared for their
students. They both came up with very creative methods to gain
the students interest, and they both went beyond the classroom
to support their students. Although they were both good teachers, neither of them seemed to have
regard for the schools current structures; this could have lead to
struggles beyond high school, and in a more typical classroom setting.
The compassion both teachers had for their
students was apparent on several occasions throughout the movies. Mr. Keating -
an English teacher in the movie Dead Poet Society attended the all boys
preparatory school himself when he was a boy, and he could relate to the boys. He was aware that students weren't typically aloud
to make their own life choices, and he wanted to make it clear from the
beginning, that they should learn to think for themselves - be free
thinkers.
He wanted them to believe that passion, romance, and love
are what we live for. This implicated that their happiness was important to
him. Ms. Gruwell also showed compassion for her students throughout the movie
Freedom writers. One of the many kind things she did for her students, was when
she took on a second job to purchase materials. She purchased journals for each
of her students, and then encouraged them to write anything they would like to
her. She told students that the journals could be placed in a cupboard that would stay locked , and that nobody else would be able to read them. She opened the cupboard that she had told them to put the journals
in, and found that they all had written something. She did not leave the
classroom that day, until she had read every one of the students journals. Mr.
Keating and Ms. Gruwell were not only compassionate and caring teachers, but
they were also very creative. This proved to be an important role for both
teachers in helping to get through to their students.
The students found Mr. Keating to be at the
very least an interesting fellow - suggesting that he was a bit weird or
possibly even crazy, after he came into the classroom whistling and cracking
jokes about Shakespeare. He also had the students partake in tearing pages out
of their textbooks -telling them that J. Evans Prichard was excrement. The
students were so bewildered by Mr. Keating that they decided to look him up as
a former student at the school. The students found him in an old yearbook, and
asked him about the Dead Poet Society. Once he knew he had their interest - he told them about a place he and the other students used to sneak off to and read poetry. He
planted a poetry book for his students to sneak off with - and it didn't take long for them to do just that. This
made them feel as though they were a part of something, and gave them courage
to explore who they really wanted to be. It made since that Mr. Keating would
have to use such strange methods to get through to his students, because he was
teaching in a very structured and controlled environment. Unlike the preparatory
school that Mr. Keating taught at - Ms. Gruwell was taking on a classroom that
had no structure at all. She learned very quickly, if she was going to get
through to her students - she was going to have to change her topic of study
all together. She used the history of the holocaust to compare the student’s
current situations in gangs. The Holocaust caught their attention, and the
students wanted to learn more. She then took her students to a museum so they
could learn more, and arranged a dinner with survivors of the holocaust to
speak to the students. This was one of the many things Ms. Gruwell did to make
her students want to learn. Both teachers had to be creative in their
classrooms to get their students attention, but they did not have to go beyond
the classroom to support their students as they did in both movies.
Mr. Keating showed support for
one of his students "Neil" when he came to him upset because his
father wanted him to quit acting. Mr. Keating told Neil that he should tell his
father how he really felt about acting - thinking that Neil's father would
listen. Mr. Keating brought several of his students to support Neil's role as
Puck, in A Mid Summer Nights Dream, but sadly, he realized that Neil hadn't
talked to his father at all and that Neil did not have the support of his
father. Neil would later go home with his father and try to tell him how he
really felt about acting, but his dad told him that he was going to send him
away to military school. Neil knew his father did not care about what he
wanted so he found his fathers gun, and committed suicide in his office.
Ms. Gruwell went out of her way on several occasions as well. Perhaps the
most selfless act that she did was taking on a second, and then a third job to
support her students, and purchase supplies - this would eventually break
up her her marriage, because she was never home, and her husband felt
that he was put on the back burner compared to her students. They took first
priority in her eyes. She also offered to give Eva a ride home if she had to
stay late, when she was having difficulties with her family because she told
the truth in court.
Creativity, compassion, and the willingness to go above and beyond - are
only a few of the many things that made Mr. Keating and Ms Gruwell good
teachers, however one must also consider all effects that their alternative
methods could have on the students - good and bad. Showing students that it was
okay to be defiant, or to act out at the preparatory school, by standing on
their desks, or cracking a joke with students after one student received the
paddle for taking on a fake phone call - which was disruptive during a serious
school meeting - left one student to be expelled for his actions. Ms. Gruwell
not teaching her students any traditional classroom methods - may have lead
them to difficulties in a college setting- which may have hindered their
abilities to succeed in a more structured or traditional classroom setting. We must
consider both the positives and the Negatives
of every teaching style - as it is our duty as parents and as teachers to see
to it that our children will be functioning, and able bodied citizens in our
society.
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