The teachings of Mr. Keating
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The teachings of Mr. Keating
- First Lesson
John Keating, from his room, enters in the class whistling and then he go out. The boys are amazed, he enters again and call them outside, setting them in front of old pictures of students of the school.
CARPE DIEM
To the Vergins To Make Much of Time. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may old time is still a flying and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying.
Seize the day, “Gather ye rosebud while ye may”. Why does the writer use these lines?Because we are food for worms, lads. Because, believe or not, each and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing turn cold, and die.I would like you to step forward over here and peruse some of the faces from the past. You’ve walked past them many times, but I don’t think you’ve really looked at them. They’re not that different from you, are they? Same haircuts, full of hormones just like you. Invincible just like you feel. The world is their oyster. They believe they’re destined for great things just like many of you. Their eyes are full of hope just like you. Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable? Because, you see, gentlemen, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close you can hear them whisper their legacy to you.
Carpe Diem, seize the day, boys, make your lives extraordinary…
- Second Lesson
Keating says to Neil to read the introduction of their literature’s book Understanding Poetry by J. Evans Pritchard. The introduction explains the beauty of a poetry, as the issue of a mathemathic graph, where Perfection and Importance are the rules . During the reading someone thinks, someone eats, some other paints breast (Charlie of course!!) and someone is trying to understand but he can’t make out.
Excrement, that’s what I think of Mr J. Evans Pritchard.
So Mr Keating says to rip the pages out of the book.
This is a battle, a war, and the casualties could be your hearts and your souls. Armies of academics going forward measuring poetry. No! We’ll not have that here. No more Mr J. Evans Pritchard.
Words and ideas can change the world
O me, o life of the questions of these recurring of the endless trains of the faithless of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these o me, o life? Answer: that you are here. That life exist an identity. That the powerful plays goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
(Walt Whitman)
- Third lesson
Keating says to the guys that the lesson is about Shakespeare. Everybody puff. But he shows them how can it be different from another point of view.
Why do I stand up here?
I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way. You see, the world looks very different from up here. […] Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try! Now, when you read, don’t just consider what the author thinks, consider what you think. Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation”. Don’t be resigned to that. Break out! Don’t just walk off the edge like lemmings. Look around you. Dare to strike out and find new ground…
- Fourth lesson
Keating takes his students to the sports ground of the school and gives each other a note to read in a loud voice, then to throw his strength kicking the ball. Aim: free themselves!
For me, sport is actually a chance for us to have other human beings push us to excel.
Teachings:
- Oh, the struggle against great odds. To meet enemies undaunted.
- To be a sailor of the world, bound for all ports
- Oh, I live to be the ruler of life, not a slave
- To mount the scaffolds. To advance to the muzzles of guns with perfect nonchalache
- To dance, clap hands exalt, shout, skip, roll on, float on
- Oh, to have life henceforth the poem of new joys
- To indeed be a god!
- Fifth lesson
Keating tells the students to write a poetry to read in the presence of everybody.
I don’t mind that your poem had a simple theme. Sometimes the most beautiful poetry can be about simple things, like a cat, or a flower or rain. You see, poetry can come from anything with the stuff of revelation in it. Just don’t let your poems be ordinary.
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the rooftops of the world (W.W.)
- Sixth lesson
Lesson about Conformism. Boys have to walk to find their gait, their way to be.
Now, we all have a great need for acceptance. But you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own even though others may think them odd or unpopular. Even though the herd may go, “That’s bad”. Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference”. Now, I want you to find your own walk right now. Your own way of strading, pacing. Any direction. Anything you want. Whether it’s proud, whether it’s silly, anything.