O Captain! My Captain! The Impact of Enthusiasm on an Arts Education

Transcription

1 Rice 1 Travis Rice Professor Dan Collins ARA December 2014 O Captain! My Captain! The Impact of Enthusiasm on an Arts Education The passing of Robin Williams on August 11, 2014 definitely left a void in the hearts of many. From the comedic to the dramatic, seldom has someone been able to, so flawlessly, cross so many genres as an actor. But what was most surprising to me was the effect on those who connected so deeply with his one role as, of all things, a teacher, in the movie Dead Poet s Society. "O captain!! my captain!! you inspired me to be a teacher!!! and I know you have inspired a generation," tweeted Sujan Chitrakar. "Feels like I lost a mentor. Robin Williams as Mr. Keating changed my path in life. Dead Poet s Society led me to teaching," added Cori Marino. "Robin Williams or Mr. Keating, my inspiration to become a teacher, has passed away. "Oh Captain, my Captain!" May his soul rest in peace," tweeted Liliana Alvarez and finally, tweeted by Jacqueline Prins, I wanted to be a journalist, saw Dead Poet s Society, changed plans and became a teacher. Good actors do change the world (Townsend). "But only in their dreams can man be truly free.'twas always thus, and always thus will be," quips, Welton Academy s newly appointed English instructor Mr. John Keating to his cynical colleague and teacher of Latin, George McAllister, in the movie Dead Poet s Society after McAllister had just questioned Mr. Keating s judgment of transforming fresh minded seventeen year olds into freethinkers. In the movie Dead Poet s Society, Mr. John Keating, played by the late actor/comedian Robin Williams, is a zealous, freshly hired, English instructor determined to develop his students into creative independent thinkers despite the burden of teaching within the

2 Rice 2 sternly traditional prep school confines of Welton Academy. Dead Poet s Society takes place in 1950 s Vermont and, while the storyline is a not so uncommon one, it is rooted in what can be deemed a somewhat radical educational approach especially for the 1950 s. Early in the movie Mr. Keating rejects any formulaic attempts to measure the quality of poetry calling them excrement, and is, therefore, in some measure, painted as a constructivist; in that he views learning as an active process where learners should learn to discover principles, concepts and facts for themselves, hence the importance of encouraging guesswork and intuitive thinking in learners (Brown, Collins, Duguid 32). He quickly does away with formalities and announces that, "In this class you can either call me Mr. Keating, or if you're slightly more daring, 'O captain, my captain', asserting that he sees himself as a collaborator in this process of learning further connecting him to the definition of constructivism where the instructor and the learners are equally involved in learning from each other (Alao, Kobiowu, Adebowale 57). Ultimately meaning that the learning experience is both subjective and objective and requires that the instructor s culture, values and background become an essential part of the interplay between learners and tasks in the shaping of meaning (Alao, Kobiowu, Adebowale 57). Though his approach to learning is painted with the ideals of constructivism, what lies central to this philosophy as well as others is an unmeasurable variable, that which convinces even the most timid to sound their barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world, that which shakes the soul and ignites the grey matter, that which is called enthusiasm. Plato called it mania and it was originally defined as, Inspiration is infectious. If you are around someone who is enthusiastic, you are at high risk: you may catch the passions that animate that person, even if they may not be good for you (Elkins 99). In the following essay I want to study the ways enthusiasm/inspiration can enhance the experience of an arts education through examining the

3 Rice 3 methods presented in the film Dead Poet s Society and ultimately discover why it has had such a profound effect on a generation of teachers. The Rupture Sauntering into Mr. Keating s English class, the boys of Welton Academy are under the assumption that today s class will be the standard introduction to writing poetry. Mr. Keating immediately plays the role of the dutiful Welton Academy instructor and has the class open their books to the introduction titled Understanding Poetry and asks Neil Perry to read the opening paragraph. Neil carefully reads through Dr. J. Evans Pritchard s tedious formula on how he feels poetry should be measured describing a graph that rates a poem s perfection on a horizontal scale and then its performance on a vertical scale. Mr. Keating, via the chalkboard, visually demonstrates Dr. Pritchard s rating method as Neil sums up the first paragraph reading as you proceed through the poetry in this book practice this rating method [and] as your ability to evaluate poems in this matter grows so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry. Mr. Keating, finishing up his visual demonstration, sets down his chalk, brushes off his hands and turns to the class and, in a quiet unassuming voice, simply states his opinion of Dr. J. Evans Pritchard s rating method using but one word excrement. Then with a sarcastic tone barks, We re not laying pipe, we re talking about poetry. How can you describe poetry like American Bandstand? Well I like Byron I give it a 42 but I can t dance to it. He then insists that they not only rip out that page but that they rip out the entire introduction, Be gone J Evans Pritchard Phd. Rip! Shred! Tear! Rip it out! Mr. Keating is laying a foundation, a precedent, for how he feels poetry should be taught or, better yet, should not be taught. This collective defiant demonstration, I assert, starts the process of breaking down inhibitions and opening the minds of these boys who are already overburdened by the rules and traditions of Welton Academy to

4 Rice 4 become freethinkers and individuals. But he is not simply stating be a freethinker he is defiant with them leading them beyond the lecture to a transformative place or what Patricia Goldblatt described in her article, that summarizes the thinking of educational theorist John Dewey, described as a rupture from the mundane Investigation expands inquiry and revitalizes meaning, now unencumbered and divorced from traditional associations. The experience stands alone, but is then returned to the former stream of daily life with new significance (Goldblatt 18). Mr. Keating describes the desire to be a freethinker as a battle, a war, and the causalities could be your hearts and souls Now in my class you will learn to think for yourselves, you will learn to savior words and language. No matter what anyone tells you words and ideas can change the world. He then asks them to break free from the confines of their desks and huddle up around him in the middle of the room so they can focus on his words. Kneeling within them on one knee he says, We don t study poetry because it s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race and the human race is filled with passion. Now Medicine, Law, Business, and Engineering, these are all noble pursuits necessary to sustain life, but - poetry beauty romance - love these are what we stay alive for. He follows this plea by quoting Walt Whitman, Oh me, oh life. Of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, Of cities filled with the foolish, what good amid these, Oh me, Oh life. The answer. That you are here, that life exists an identity, that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse, and then questions, What will your verse be? Mr. Keating is asserting himself as a co-creator in this process of learning creating an experience that extends beyond the classroom and helps his students prepare, not just in terms of academics, but for life. As Goldblatt, once again, summarizing Dewey, explains that, If art reflects liberty of

5 Rice 5 expression, then those who pursue it through art are involved in a sociopolitical action to reconstruct a world of enhanced and improved social relations (18). Vulnerability Whether an educator or student, to open oneself up to the possibility of ridicule or failure is always a scary notion as nobody wants to look stupid or inept. So often we conform out of a fear of looking different or being told we are not doing something right, but in arts education we must be allowed to fail in order to advance thought. Research professor Brene Brown calls this notion vulnerability and says it is the birthplace of creativity and innovation (Brown, Brene). She explains in a video interview she gave to Inc. titled 4 Powerful Things Leaders Should Know About Vulnerability, that If failure is not an option innovation is not an option. There is something very vulnerable about trying something new. If you are just going to repeat what everyone else is doing then that is a little bit less scary, but if you are going to try something new that no one else is doing failure is always an option and that feels very vulnerable. Combining enthusiasm with vulnerability can make for a powerful message to students as one can open the door to risk taking and a feeling that anything is possible. A great example of this combination at work in Dead Poet s Society takes place on a brisk autumn day in Vermont and the boys of Mr. Keating s English class have found themselves outside the classroom, dressed in gym clothes, and ambling behind Mr. Keating who is carrying a bag full of soccer balls to an open athletic field. Keating admonishes, For me sport is a chance to have other human beings push us to excel and then hands each member of the class a piece of paper on which he has scribbled an inspiring literary quotation. The boys, looking just a little befuddled and a bit bewildered, line up single file with their literary quotations in hand and have a soccer ball placed in front of them. Each is to read aloud, with fierce passion, their literary quote and then stride

6 Rice 6 forward to boot the ball into the goal. Mr. Keating, walking away, blows his whistle and exclaims, You know what to do Mr. Pitts! Followed by Mr. Pitts bellowing, Oh the struggle against great odds to meet enemies undaunted! step step kick. The next boy thunders, To be a sailor of the world bound for all ports! step step kick. Oh while I live, to be the ruler of life, not a slave shouts the next boy as Keating cues up on a record player the heroic sounds of classical music adding drama and turning a seemingly banal act into sensational theater. One by one each trumpets their quote and drives the soccer ball forward building to a final crescendo by the outspoken Charlie Dalton, who, while looking sternly toward the sky with his hands clinched in fists held high above his head, at the absolute dramatic pinnacle of the music, shrieks, To indeed be a God! step step kick. While this scene may seem, to some, as trite or obvious it illustrates a moment of shared humility that combines vulnerability with enthusiasm and allows the students to, at least in front of each other, let their guard down and begin to explore new ways of thinking without fear of ridicule as each has seen the other in a vulnerable state. It also shows Keating s creative enthusiasm as he combines a physical act with learning all set to the motivation of music. Vulnerability also plays a role in another scene where we find Mr. Keating s class once again outside the classroom in a campus courtyard where Mr. Keating has invited three boys to walk around the courtyard saying, No grades at stake gentlemen, just take a stroll. The three boys quickly find themselves in lockstep marching in unison as the others clap in rhythm to their steps. Mr. Keating interrupts their stroll and mentions that this exercise was not meant to ridicule the boys but rather to illustrate the point of conformity. He explains, 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. Then quoting the great poet Robert Frost, he says, two roads diverged in the woods

7 Rice 7 and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference followed by inviting all the boys to invent their own way of walking, their own way of striding, pacing, anything you want whether its proud or silly, anything. Creating moments of shared vulnerability and humility allows students to laugh at each other as well as themselves at the same time in order to break down inhibitions and positively reinforce risk taking, ultimately, reducing the fear of failure. But in order to open student s minds and truly break down inhibitions they must be placed in situations that make them vulnerable or a bit uncomfortable. As Brene Brown reinforces, If you are comfortable I am not teaching. Because just like innovation is uncomfortable, learning is uncomfortable and so if my students are comfortable I am not doing my job (Brown, B.). Professor of Education, Sarah MacKenzie-Dawson adds, "The willingness to be vulnerable, to speak mistakes, and to talk for growth in the classroom creates a valuable dialogue between teachers and students," she says. "We learn that we are all human beings, imperfect and flawed and that's okay (Faculty Stories). Combining vulnerability with enthusiasm or creating one as a result of the other in arts education generates a powerful cocktail that students respond to and creates a dynamic learning experience for both the instructor and student. Rebellion I suppose the true constructivist asserts that students must find answers for themselves and that the teaching of any sort of foundation principles would be considered restricting or prohibiting a student from learning or arriving at a truly unique solution. Or the constructivist may not be concerned about a solution at all, but instead the process generated in the search for a solution. I assert that the teaching of foundation elements and principles in arts education is an important

8 Rice 8 activity in so far as it provides both a platform from which to further build upon or a foundation from which to rebel. As creativity theorist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi claims, it is impossible to be creative without having first internalized a domain of culture and its rules (Csikszentmihalyi 71). He cautions, that constant change without regard to the past rarely leads to novelty that is accepted as an improvement (71). Giving students permission to challenge the norm or the etched in granite notions of those who have come before is essential in creating a generation of potential risk takers. In the movie Dead Poet s Society rebellion takes on many forms and while we seldom see Mr. Keating teaching specific principles of English he is constantly making his students aware of the poets and authors that have come before them. But the domain of culture and its rules as Csikszentmihalyi speaks of, that is rebelled against in this film is that of Welton Academy itself with its endless years of tradition and stern principles laying the foundation from which to rebel. The roots of this rebellion start with English instructor Mr. Keating as his infectious enthusiasm opens the door to a new way of thinking and thus creates a desire to challenge that which has been etched in stone for so long. It all starts one afternoon as the boys of Mr. Keating s English class discover an old yearbook from Welton Academy that includes Mr. Keating himself, who is an alumnus of Welton Academy, and lists all the activities he was once involved in while attending Welton. One activity, in particular, that draws their attention describes Keating as a member of the Dead Poet s Society. Curious to find out more about this obscure reference the boys hunt Mr. Keating down and present him with his old annual and ask What was the Dead Poet s Society? Keating answers their query by initially mentioning, I doubt the present administration would look too favorably upon that. Peaking their interest he continued, Gentlemen can you keep a secret? The dead poets were dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life. That s a phrase from Thoreau that we would invoke at the beginning of every

9 Rice 9 meeting. See we would gather at the old Indian cave and take turns reading from Thoreau, Whitman, Shelley, the biggies, even some of our own verse and in the enchantment of the moment we let poetry work its magic. Looking confused student Knox Overstreet asks, You mean it was just a bunch of guys sitting around reading poetry? To which Keating responds, we didn t just read poetry we let it drip from our tongues like honey, spirits soared, woman swooned, and Gods were created gentlemen. Not a bad way to spend an evening, eh? The seed was planted and thus grew a new generation of the Dead Poets Society journeying nightly to the cave in the woods to, as the Thoreau poem describes live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Rebellion for the boys of Mr. Keating s English class was simply about finding a way to have the opportunity to think for themselves outside the confines and burdens of what Welton Academy represented and did not provide. Feeding off of Keating s enthusiasm they seek out their own transformative experiences or as Patricia Golblatt summarizes John Dewey, they seek out, Expanded perceptions, open venues for understanding and action. Attention to detail excit[ing] potential for meaning, yielding important societal insights, previously taken for granted (Goldblatt 18). Furthering, that, in Goldblatt s summarization of both Maxine Green and John Dewey, dialogues broaden awareness, so imagination and horizons expand, encouraging alternative choices. With hopefulness, people discover inspiration and reason in art to act for societal improvement (18). In arts education enthusiasm stands as the most honest asset an instructor can pass on to his or her students that, hopefully, leads to transformative experiences that create vulnerability and promote healthy forms of rebellion that we allow to happen without constraint. The movie Dead Poet s Society, while a fictional tale holds a certain irony at the

10 Rice 10 end as the main character eventually, frustrated with the limits his father has put on him, feels he has no choice but to take his own life as did the actor Robin Williams in real life. I feel, ultimately, that while we can do research, assemble data, and write hypotheses, people cannot be looked at as just numbers to be compiled and thrown into faceless categories. People are living breathing things with each wired in its own way and while someone may presents themselves in a certain manner on the surface we can never truly tell what s going on inside their minds. We genuinely have no idea what inspires a person to decide the next day is worth waking up to or not, but at least as we educate both young and old we can attempt to create better human beings by being better human beings. What this means as educators is that we will not always possess the right answers, we will not always succeed, our lesson plans will not always be spot on, our students will not always embrace our ideas, we will not always know how to educate or be educating but we can at least show our humanity through our flaws and bring whatever it is we have to offer in an enthusiastic way and hope that we infect at least one person in a positive manner so they might decide to wake up and embrace the next day.

11 Rice 11 Works Cited Alao, K. A., S. V. Kobiowu, and O. F. Adebowale. Fundamentals of Educational and Counselling Psychology. Horsham: Strategic Insight Publ., Print. Brene, Brown. "4 Powerful Things Leaders Should Know About Vulnerability." Inc.com. Inc., n.d. Web. 29 Nov <http%3a%2f%2fwww.inc.com%2fkimberly-weisul-and andrew-maclean%2fdr-brene-brown-vulnerability-leadership.html>. Brown, John Seely., Allan Collins, and Paul Duguid. Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning. Palo Alto, CA: Institute for Research on Learning, 1988: Print. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996: Print. Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. Perf. Robin Williams. Touchstone, Film. Elkins, James. Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students. Urbana: U of Illinois, 2001: 81. Print. "Faculty Stories: Sarah MacKenzie-Dawson." Bucknell University. Bucknell University, 3 Oct Web. 29 Nov < Goldblatt, Patricia. "How John Dewey s Theories Underpin Art and Art Education." Education and Culture 4th ser (2006): 18+. Web. 29 Nov <

12 Rice 12 Townsend, Lucy. "The Real Teachers Inspired by Dead Poets Society." BBC News. BBC, 13 Aug Web. 27 Nov