On October 20, I saw the film Dead Poet Society, from Director Peter Weir, featuring Robin Williams as John Keating, an English teacher with unorthodox methods that inspired his students to think for themselves and realize that words and ideas can change the world. Keating’s love for teaching brought him back to his own preparatory school, Welton Academy, an all-boys elite boarding school in Vermont, the “best preparatory school in the US”. Welton’s moto was: Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. The film starts when the new student Todd Anderson, meets his roommate senior Neil Perry, who introduced him to his friends Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, and Gerard Pitts.

The group of students soon bonds with Mr. Keating’s unorthodox teaching that pushes them to trust their own believes as unique and to dare to take the less traveled road. The students found out that Mr. Keating had founded the Dead Poet Society when he was himself a student at Welton to promote the dangers of conformity and push to live deliberately.   Mr. Keating taught his students to read and write poetry because the human race is built on passion. Life identity is powerful if you contribute with a verse and learn to seize the day.

Neil and his fellow friends restart their own Dead Poet Society and Neil Perry defies his father that wants him to focus on school and go to Harvard’s medical school, by following his own interest on acting accepting the role of Puck in Midsummers Night Dream. Neil’s father urges him to drop the role, but advised by Mr. Keating Neil performs the play and is acclaimed by the audience. Enraged, his father decides to transfer him to a Military School to make sure he follows the path he set for him to go to Harvard, but Neil in desperation shots himself.

Welton’s Director, Mr. Nolan, presses Neil’s close friends to accuse Mr. Keating and fires him. The boys cannot help it but line with Mr. Keating as he leaves the classroom by standing on their desks and calling him as he taught them: ‘O Captain, My Captain’! They respected him for teaching them self-expression and to stand for their own believes to make their lives extraordinary. I was moved by the fact that the movie was inspired by the true story of Samuel Pickering, an English Professor at University of Connecticut.   Prior to obtaining his Master’s degree, Pickering taught at the Montgomery Bell Academy where one of his students, Tom Schulman, wrote the script for the film based on his eccentric teaching style. Professor Pickering is now Emeritus and his writing focus on the absurdities and pretensions of civilization. I found the movie’s theme enlightening for Keating’s teaching passion and unconventional ways to push the young students to find their own voice.