EduPop! will explore various representations of teachers and educators as they appear in media: novels, movies, television shows, music, etc. Some representations are wonderful, some terrible but all are presented for fun!
Mr. John Keating
Dead Poets Society
Touchstone Pictures
1989
Though I have some issues with the end of the movie Dead Poets Society, I have no concerns at all with Robin Williams’ performance as Mr. John Keating, an English teacher who inspires his students to great heights of reasoning and great passion for literature.
A lover of language and an engrossing and innovative educator, John Keating is portrayed as a man who wants to instill in his students more than knowledge for knowledge’s sake: he wants to raise them up – their spirits, their intellects and their souls. He is willing to allow them to know him and, in turn, he gets to know them. He treats them as individuals, not as numbers and, though he may come very close to crossing professional lines with them, his care of them changes their lives.
The film takes place in an age when education was intended to be monolithic in approach and students were considered less than part of the process. We still struggle against these norms. We need more John Keatings.