Dead Poet’s Society

Dead Poet’s Society

The film, Dead Poet’s Society, is a story of a English professor who instructs a group of eager boys in a highly accredited and traditional boys academy. Professor Keatings, played by Robin Williams, introduces his students into the world of poetry. Throughout the school year, the professor inspires the students to “seize the day” and make their lives extraordinary. A group of students gets swept away by their teacher’s enthusiastic spirit, and they decide to reorganize “The Dead Poet’s Society”, a select club which used to meet in a cave when the professor attended school, to experience inspiration through poetry. The inspirational impact he has on his students backfires when the school’s board of trustees finds out about the unorthodox teaching methods that go on in the classroom. One of his students commits suicide after the boy’s father, a very controlling man, rejects his son and his enthusiasm for acting and the stage.

Professor Keatings doesn’t follow textbooks or the curriculum, but teaches from his heart. Unlike his conservative colleagues, Keating employs decidedly unorthodox teaching methods and strives to teach more than just his subject matter, which is poetry. His goal is to inspire his students to suck the bone of life to the marrow, to seize the day and to make their lives extraordinary. In Keating's class, you learn passion, courage, romanticism, and, of course poetry. You pass if you avoid conformity and find your own voice, and you fail if you neglect to live life to the fullest. The impact that professor Keatings has on his students is eternal. His spirit will probably always live in his students’ hearts.

Any teacher who is like Keatings is priceless. He wasn’t just teacher of academics but a teacher of life. I have had some teachers similar to Professor Keatings, whom I will always remember.