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.
