John Keatings and "The Dead Poet's Society"

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the character of John Keatings in the film "The Dead Poet's Society" and considers where Keatings and the prep school he teaches at fit in, in the philosophies of education. The paper contrasts Keatings' philosophy on education with that of the school philosophy and concludes that Keatings' philosophy is by far the superior of the two.

From the Paper:

"John Locke wrote of education, "Virtue is harder to be got than knowledge of the world; and, if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered." John Keatings believes in this Lockian principle, but only to a certain degree. In his classroom, Keatings stressed virtue: He taught his students how to live and feel and treat one another as much as he taught them to classics. In fact, he deliberately skips the theoretical works in the class - even having his students dramatically rip out the pages of a methodical, unfeeling treatise on how to understand and appreciate poetry - in favor of poetry that makes his students feel and interact with one another."

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