A true teacher - Dead Poets Society

     After I watched the TV show, Good Wife, I was fascinated by the actor, Josh Charles, who took the role of "Will Gardner" in the show. So, while I was searching about Josh Charles, I found some movies he appeared. One of them was "Dead Poets Society." Since this movie was released 1989, Josh Charles in the movie was a young cute boy. As I watched this movie, I was attracted by not only Josh Charles but also the whole movie.

young Josh Charles

Kitting(Robin Williams)

     The background of this movie was a famous private high school in the late middle of 20^th century. The head of this high school boasted the high entrance rate to the Ivy League. The discipline of that school was so strict and their goal of education was to train the students devote only on the study to bring them to a good university. One day, a new teacher, Kitting came to this school to teach English poetries. (The actor of the role of Kitting is Robin Williams, who is one of my favorite actors!) Different from other teachers, he didn’t restrict students only on the study. Instead, he said to his students, “Carpe diem!” which means ‘enjoy the pleasure of the moment.’ By the teaching of Kitting, the students who were worn out by the pressure of study, changed. They learned about the poetry itself not by the poetry as a subject to study and analyze. They made a secret group to write and read their own poetries. Also they started to find their identities. For example, Neil grew his dream of being an actor of a play. Knox achieved his first love. Todd overcame the lack of confidence and became a sensitive poet. I thought those changes was very positive things to students, but the school, which attached importance only on the study didn’t like such a teaching of Kitting. Moreover, one day, Neil committed suicide suffered by the objection of his father about being an actor of a play. The principle of the school attributed all the responsibility to Kitting so that Kitting got fired. I think the tragic ending is more effective to criticize the irrationality of education atmosphere of that age than happy ending.

      The last scene was the most memorable scene to me. When Kitting visited the class for the last time after he was fired, the students of the class stood on their desk and showed their respect to Kitting crying “Oh, captain, my captain.”

Oh, captain! my captain!