Issue Proposal

Keating’s Class in Dead Poet’s Society

There is no doubt about the fact that the US educational system struggles where many other countries continually outperform. I believe this issue arises mainly due to an emotional distance between teachers and students as a result of American culture fearing illicit relationships between them. The movie Dead Poet’s Society explores the benefits and detriments of closeness between teachers and students. The emotional bond between Keating and his students allows him to guide them in both education and their individual lives, and some of its ideas could be effectively applied to today’s educational system. How can emotional connections help teachers and students better understand each other to the point that students want to learn and teachers want to teach.

This issue is compelling because of the widespread nature of the problem as well as the time that the problem has persisted despite continual attempts of reform. Although there have been improvements in recent years, many students still perform less than expected on standardized tests and drop out due to poor grades in classes.

I know that this somewhat arises due to the aspect of American culture of convenience. Results from school require patience and several years of study. Students, seeing this daunting education decide to give up before they even finish or quit as a result of the educational system being less accommodating to their type of learning. Changing the culture of American students requires a strong emotional bond between the student and the person they view as a role model in order to influence their values in a beneficial way. Optimally, their role model would be their teachers who can influence the students to take their studies to heart.

I need to learn more about other culture’s values of education, more specifically about what they are able to do better than the US in order to draw parallels between what we are doing and what we should be doing. Learning more specifically about the reasons behind students quitting school would also be helpful in providing a solution  to the problem.