2nd paper compare/contrast rough draft

Triumph and Tragedy

Mr. Escalantes from “Stand and Deliver” and Mr. Keating from “Dead Poets Society” were teaching to inspire their students.  Mr. Escalantes was teaching at an urban school in Los Angeles during the 1980’s and Mr. Keating was teaching a boys prep school in New England during the 1950’s.  Both of the teachers loved teaching and showed that through their humor, inspiration and dedication to their students ending in triumph and tragedy.

You can tell that each teacher loves teaching through their humor.  Mr. Escalantes heart was for showing his students to reach above the normal – normal in their school was: being part of a gang, babysitting your brothers and sisters while both parents are earning a living, or living with your grandmother and helping her when she is ill.  Mr. Escalantes used their environment in a humorous way.  He began by speaking to them the way they spoke to each other, but he was funny in doing it.  In the classroom on the second day of class he used slang like, “Whatchagot” or “I’ll see you in People’s Court” and goes on to Chuco who says that he does the work in his head.  Mr. Escalante says, “Ohhh! You know the times tables?” Chuco sticks up his thumb and proceeds saying, “I know the ones; (second finger) I know the twos; (sticking up his middle finger) I know the threes…” Mr. Escalante then says, “Finger man, I heard about you.  Are you the finger man? I’m the finger man too”, he then goes on to show a trick for multiplying by 9.

Mr. Keating was a teacher that had also gone to the same school as his students but doesn’t teach them the way he was taught, strictly by the rules.  He wants them to “look at things a different way”. You see his humor  first day of class as he was calling out students names and he came to Mr. Pitts, he says, “Mr. Pitts an unfortunate name” in a funny, sarcastic way.  Another day in the class room he was using different actors and imitating their voices.  One was John Wayne.  Using the tone and swagger says, “or Macbeth, Is this the dagger I see before me?”  With all the actors he imitates it left the students laughing and enjoying being a part of the poetry class which wasn’t dull and boring.

Not only were they both humorous teachers but had a special way of inspiring their students.  Mr. Escalantes was excellent in math.  He didn’t just teach basic math, but immediately started with algebra.  His second day of school he came dressed as a butcher holding a meat cleaver; he swings down and cuts an apple in half.  (He has parts of apples cut up on the students desks).   He asks Claudia, “Whatchagot?” “It’s an apple”, “How much”, “what do you mean”, the students are confused at this point and finally gets to Ana who whispers “missing 25%”, “That’s right”.  He goes on to explain the multiplication of fractions.  As the class progresses through Algebra, Mr. Escalantes discovers that they have great potential and decides that the school needs a calculus program.  He then challenges them to prove it and through long, arduous study gets them to understand their own abilities and possibilities.  He had a quick-trick approach which helped them through the rigors of passing the calculus exam. 

Mr. Keating takes his students out of the normal teaching environment of “route” learning and brings them to dream differently than what the normal is.  Even though the school is a “prep school” and all of the students are “heading toward Harvard”, he wants to inspire them in a deeper way.  His first day of school shows him walking into the classroom, whistling the 1812 Overture.  He takes them out of class into the hall of “Past Students”, giving them the idea of “carpe diem” meaning to “Seize the Day” inviting the students to call him “Oh Captain, My Captain!” referencing a Walt Whitman poem. He asks the students to look at the past to see what they have learned and that they are “destined to great things” and to “Seize the Day”.  He goes on in the movie inspiring them with activities that show how to apply the poetry to life.  He takes them out to the football field and gives them each a ball as they kick the ball they quote part of a poem and end up playing a game on the field building team work and comradeship together with their teacher.

Mr. Escalantes and Mr. Keating both were looked at from their fellow teachers as odd.  They were dedicated but it made the other teachers upset with them that they didn’t do the bare minimum or go by the rules of the school.  Mr. Escalantes was in a teachers meeting as they were discussing how to get more funding for the school, worried that they would loose their accreditation.  The attitude of the faculty, including the principle was, “You can’t teach logarithms to illerates.  Look, these kids come to us with barely a seventh grade education. There isn’t a teacher in this room who isn’t doing everything they possibly can.” Mr. Escalantes knows he could do more and says, “I could teach more”, Ortega (Head of Math program) says, “I’m sure of Mr. Escalantes good intentions, but he’s only been here a few months.” He was dedicated enough to want to go the “second mile” and put forth the effort necessary to show how the students could do it.  In a different meeting he had said, “Students will arise to the level of expectations”.  After the kids had taken their calculus exam and passed, they were accused of cheating.  Mr. Escalantes goes to bat for them, getting them to take the exam again, and finally getting the school calculus program started. 

Mr. Keating was always doing something in his classroom that the other teachers disapproved.  His style was more for allowing the students the chance to be “free thinkers”.  At dinner Mr. McCallister brings up an earlier situation and told Mr. Keating that his class was “fascinating, but misguided”, Mr. Keating is understanding the criticism of his way, but stands his ground stating that he is helping them become “free thinkers”.  Through the whole conversation Mr. Keating is standing for what he knows is best for the students, dedicated to bringing out their closed minds.  During his classes he taught the students things like: “life exists, identify”, “the play goes on”, “this is a battle, a war for your soul, you will learn to think for yourselves, words & ideas can change the world!” He was showing them how to step out from the world they are in to a world waiting for change.

Even though both of the teachers loved teaching, they were all about bringing more from their students whether it was excelling in math or looking for something more from life.  They ended up with total different endings.  Mr. Escalante was instrumental in getting the school their accreditation, getting the math program built up and setting the standard for the school in the area of math.  While on the other end of the spectrum, Mr. Keating in his “free thinking way” ended up getting fired from the school.  Neal, one of his students did not want to be a doctor but an actor.  His father was against anything that would distract Neal from the goal of medical school.  In the end, Neal was so distraught over his father’s desire that he committed suicide, resulting in the school’s criticism of the way Mr. Keating taught on the line of “free thinking”.  It was a tragedy, ending up with Mr. Keating getting fired.  But still with the respect from his students who would always call him “Oh Captain, My Captain”.

Mr. Escalantes and Mr. Keating were both teachers who loved teaching.  They showed that through their humor, inspiration and dedication to their students, ending in triumph for Mr. Escalantes and tragedy for Mr. Keating.