Oh Captain My Captain

Karla Zabel

English 101

Dr. Sonia Apgar Begert                       

Formal Term Paper 2 Final
2-22-13

Oh Captain My Captain

        What is the most crucial role a teacher can play in the life of a student? For many it might be to open the questioning minds of their scholars, to draw them in, making them eager for more knowledge. It might make them want to ask why, to question everything, to show them how to constantly look at things in a different way, and to create critical thinkers who don’t believe in something just because it is what they were told. That was the role of Mr. John Keating from the movie, “Dead Poets Society”. It also describes my English teacher Mrs. Rachael Biel.  Mrs. Biel and Mr. Keating believed that the idea of a true education was to learn to think for yourself.

        An important quality that Mrs. Biel and Mr. Keating had in common was their ability to think outside the box. They walked into class each day with the goal of teaching students to do the same. From the first day of class Mrs. Biel’s students knew they were in for a very different experience. She told everyone on the first day of class to follow her outside. She freed us from the compounds of the classroom walls and into what she called the world classroom. She asked us to select something while looking around. We all found something that stood out to us personally. I selected the American flag, as my father was retired from the Navy. One of my classmates selected a church steeple, while another chose a corridor of the building as a symbol of his hopeful Engineering degree. Two smokers selected the student smoking shed.  Mrs. Biel explained that our assignment was to write a poem about the item without supplying too much physical description. Back in the classroom, we were asked to visualize what fellow classmate may have been writing about. It was amazing how everyone thought differently and definitely out of the box!

        As with Mrs. Biel, Mr. Keating wanted his first day to make an impression on the students too. His first day in the classroom caught everyone’s attention. As he walked through the classroom whistling, he instructed his students to follow him into the main entrance where photos and trophies were displayed from the school’s previous students. “Carpe Diem, seize the days boys” he whispered as they gazed at photos of students very much like themselves. “Same haircuts, full of hormones, just like you, and invincible just like you feel.” Mr. Keating chuckled as he told his students that the young men before them were now fertilizing daffodils. He told his students he wanted them to make their lives extraordinary. Mr. Keating handed a student a textbook. The student read, “To the Virgins, to make much of Time. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old Time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying.” The students nodded in understanding of the poems meaning.

         Mrs. Biel and Mr. Keating shared an ability to draw students in and to get them involved with enthusiasm. Even the quietest of students found a new place in the classroom with their classmates. It was tremendous that each teacher had a way of making their students want to go to class and the ability to make their students want to learn. They had a passion for seeing the light of understanding in a student’s eyes that moment of ah ha! There were days when I left class that I couldn’t wait to get home and share with friends and family what new and exciting concept we had just learned. I absolutely loved sharing that I was learning to think for myself and becoming a critical thinker looking at all sides.

        “Pick a character from this painting,” Mrs. Biel instructed the class one day. She requested we pick a character from the painting to write about. We all sat staring at The Dancing Butler wondering what new lesson we were about to learn. The students got caught up in looking at the man, the woman, and the two dancers in the painting. Without really knowing the artist’s interpretation, the many different experiences of the same painting from fellow students really were as different as the students themselves. This compares to Mr. Keating’s thoughts on not just considering what the author thinks but also on what you think.

        One of Mr. Keating’s fascinating class projects to help students think independently takes place outside in their courtyard. He selected three scholars to walk in a big circle in front of the rest of the students. Within a few minutes the three were walking with the same stride while the rest of the class was clapping along to the beat. The experiment to show conformity and the need to be accepted worked! Keating found unique ways to show students how to look at the same things in a different way. They wanted their students to swim against the stream. They wanted their students to learn to think for themselves.

        To add more critical thinking skills to the class experience, Mrs. Biel showed the controversial film, “An Inconvenient Truth”, by Al Gore. She led her class in an open discussion of fact versus fiction. For example, have there been more tornadoes since global warming or is that new radar and satellite technologies are allowing us to see more of them? Are the insurance industries paying out more money to flood and storm victims? This could be true, or is it because more people are building luxurious beach houses right where storms hit? The class was divided into believers and nonbelievers of the video’s truths. This was critical thinking at its best.

        It is not surprising that Mrs. Biel and Mr. Keating had another common trait that makes them outstanding individuals. These two extraordinary teachers share a genuine concern for each individual student. Their students could go to them for support and comfort for any reason from personal problems to world issues. They were truly devoted to the education and wellbeing of their students. Without a doubt, there is no other memory of any other teacher who was so personally invested in the future and the success of each student.      

        Although it was a passion for my role models to help students learn to think for themselves, that was not always the case for those who made the ultimate decisions. Sadly, Mr. Keating was dismissed because the administrators and some of the parents were so stuck in their own narrow minded views of the world, they just could not understand his teaching style. What the teachers and parents did not understand was that he was influenced by self-starters himself at this same school. Mrs. Biel also seemed to come from a mold all of her own, and she never ceased to amaze us with her ability to guide us to a different place other than where we felt most comfortable. I now know we can all learn from this example:  “For the first time in my whole life,” Neil said, “I know what I wanna do! And for the first time, I'm gonna do it whether my father wants me to or not! Carpe diem!”