The education system has evolved from the 20th to the 21st century, although foundational aspects still need to change in modern times. Despite shifts in teaching methods, student demographics, and curricular content. While Weirs’ 1989 film, “The Dead Poets Society,” and Hughes's 1966 film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off-” both explore education by incorporating themes of individualism among students, Weir emphasizes the teacher's influence on students' individual growth, differing from Hughes' non-conformity perspective of students disobeying the educational system to discover themselves. The 20th-century educational system has suffered from the modern day, although in a broader context, the most that has disintegrated is the abusive tactics directed …show more content…
Ferris's Day Off depicts students’ rebellion against the restrictive conformity of their high school environment due to their authoritarian Principal, Ed Rooney. An example of the uprising is Ferris Bueller's escapades, symbolizing a rejection of his high school's ridiculous rules, embarking on a quest to find authentic self-expression and fulfillment. On top of Ferris’s exploration of his individualism, the film celebrates Ferris’s ability to navigate the educational system on his terms, demonstrating the power of autonomy and self-determination in shaping an individual educational experience. Although the films have different perspectives, both advocate the importance of individualism and self-discovery within the education system. Moreover, while Dead Poets Society focuses on the role of an inspirational teacher shifting the students’ individuality, Ferris Bueller emphasizes an urgency for students to reflect on themselves and asset their identities and aspirations on their own. Despite their differing approaches, both films come as a proxy of the importance of the education system in an individual's pursuit of
Leon Botstein, the author of “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” serves as the president of Bard College, as well as a professor of arts and humanities. Botstein wrote this article after the tragic shootings at Columbine high school in 1999. This event triggered something inside Botstein causing him to think negatively about the American high school system. In the article “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” Botstein explains, in his own words, of the corrupt happenings of present day American high school (368-369). Although Botstein may have high credentials, he provides no evidence to support his negative claims and opinions about teenagers and American high schools.
In 1967, Tom Stoppard wrote his famous play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead after getting the idea while watching a production of Hamlet. Four years later, Douglas Adams got the idea for his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria. In 1978, he would use this idea to produce a BBC radio show, which would be published as a novel in 1979. How can these two works be compared in their use of satire and cynicism?
In the iconic film, The Breakfast Club, five random high school students must spend their Saturday together in detention. Each teen is in detention for a different reason. The Jock (Andrew), the Princess (Claire), the Brain (Brian), the Basket Case (Allison), and the Criminal (Bender) must put aside their differences to survive their grueling eight-hour detention with their psychotic and rash principal Mr. Vernon. While in detention, they are expected to write about “who they really are” in one thousand words. Throughout the day, their actions reveal their innermost struggle involving their cliques and their home lives. As the movie progresses, we find out the reason each teen is in detention that culminates in a climactic discussion about
Keating, and now by The Headmaster, Mr. Nolan. Nolan brings back reference to the introductory essay by “Dr. J. Evans Pritchard Ph. D”. When this passage is being read, a symbol of the banking concept returning to the classroom, the students who were members of the dead poets society stand up in rebellion of Mr. Nolan, and his oppression. This scene shows both education methods present throughout the film and described by Friere. Nolan makes an attempt to force the banking concept back on the students, and ignore the principals of the problem posing critically thinking students they have become “Education as the exercise of domination stimulates the credulity of students, with the ideological intent (often not perceived by the educators) of indoctrinating them to adapt to the world of oppression” (Friere
that people in ancient Greece were accustomed and used to basic stories that all follow the same layout. Ferris Bueller's Day Off follows the cycle, but changes a few areas. Of course there is the ordinary world of their Chicago suburb hometown and the special world of the city of Chicago, but those are the two most prominent monomyth cycle areas in the story and there is not a lot else. Most of the changes come in the form of, as I stated earlier, Ferris being many different archetypes; therefore, Ferris cannot receive help from the different archetypes like the mentor, as he is the mentor. During the opening of the movie, Ferris explains to the audience how and why to skip school,
“I viewed each of the films at least once…taking notes on the role of the teacher, peer relations, among students, relations between students and adults, student attitudes toward schoolwork, extracurricular activities, the role of the family, the resources of the school, the use of violence and drugs, exploitation of sexuality (4).”
Director John Hughes does it again. In Sixteen Candles, he captures the essence of high school from the views of the nerds to the jocks. Depicted in the daily lives of the main characters, he shows even back in 1984, there is a division by popularity and grade. The struggles and pressures students faced are the same as what students are faced with in today’s high schools. This movie relates to teens year after year, generation after generation. Just as the author William Zinsser states in College Pressures, “They are too young to be prisoners of their parents’ dreams and their classmates’ fears” (385). Hughes is able to capture this through the eyes of high school students and the pressures they feel.
The 1985 film The Breakfast Club examines the cases of five individuals during their experiences in a Saturday morning high school detention session; each is bound by unique characteristics and circumstances, yet their shared experience allows them to form a group— an assortment of people who interact with one another and who feel as if they have reason to belong together— and socialize, or gain knowledge of group traits as well as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for each member. Notwithstanding the fact that each of these young scholars possesses wildly different attributes, they are all able to overlook such factors in favor of attainment of personal progress as well as propagation and fortification
The movie, Dead Poets Society truly captures the essence of the conformities that children are facing. The difference is letting the hourglass run out of time, or making the best of time, facing tough challenges along the way. Todd Anderson makes the best out of his time thanks to the teaching of Mr. Keating, his beloved English teacher. From a misunderstood adolescent to a courageous man, Todd shows his true colors and releases the inferior thoughts stirring up in his developing, young body. In the end, romanticism crushes idealism with power and envy, showing the eye-opening ways that a teacher can contribute to such a tightly wound academy such as Welton.
The film being analysed is the Breakfast Club, directed by John Hughes. Trapped in Saturday detention are 5 stereotyped teens. Claire, the princess, Andrew, the jock, John, the criminal, Brian, the brain, and Allison, the basket case. At 7 am, they had nothing to say, but by 4 pm; they had uncovered everything to each other. The students bond together when faced with the their principal, and realise that they have more in common than they think, including a hatred for adult society. They begin to see each other as equal people and even though they were stereotyped they would always be The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club highlights a variety of pressures that are placed upon teenagers through out high school. One of the most challenging aspects of screenwriting is creating characters that an audience can identify with, relate to, and be entertained by.
Director Peter Weir, director of The Truman Show, presents the importance of individuality and speaking up in his movie Dead Poets Society, a fictional but realistic story that tells the story of a group of friends at the Wellington Academy prep school and their interactions with their new English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams). Keating teaches the boys life lessons through some interesting teaching methods that end up changing his students’ approach to life’s challenging situations. Throughout watching Dead Poets Society, I found myself liking the movie more and more as it progressed.
The article titled “Order in the Classroom” goes in depth into the education system; its flaws, strengths, and what needs mending. Author Neil Postman, an educator of New York University includes his perspective on the education system. One remark by contributor William O’Connor, explains that the education in our schools is not inferior, the schools have been getting inferior students (Postman, 309). The students are not inferior in our education system. If we were to look in depth at some of the issues we hold, maybe that mindset would change. What makes us inferior is the fact that we do not teach our children things they need to know before beginning school, we have a horribly structured school day, we believe that socioeconomic status will change a student’s learning and ability and we believe in punishing students who cause disturbances. These are all very low and hurtful perspectives to hold when discussing education.
The aforementioned are example of student trauma, that can lead to further bad behavior and many harshly repeated reprimands targeted toward so-called problem students, for minor infractions that use mean a visit to the principal’s office or staying after
Many have the belief that in order to know where to go, there needs to be an understanding of where one has been, hence the idea of “Tradition”. The education system that society has become accustomed to having, follows the idea that the teacher reflects how he/she was taught and uses the same process to mold his/her students. In the article “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education”, (1970), Paulo Freire describes the traditional teaching and names it the “banking-education” system. Freire states that the students have no creativity, they are expected to absorb information, memorize and satisfactorily test to be considered knowledgeable. The 1989 film directed by Peter Weir, “Dead Poets Society”,
Dead Poets Society, a movie set in Welton Academy, a rigorous and elite all-boys private school, brings to life the philosophy of transcendentalism through its characters. The philosophy, which believes a person needs to find their individual, unique self and not allow the conformist ways of society to hamper the ability to have self-reliance, is introduced by Mr. Keating, the new English teacher who, through his distinctive teaching methods, exemplifies the transcendentalist idea and breathes life into it. His personification of this philosophy is not only readily welcomed by the boys, but acted upon, consequently impacting his students in a profound manner.