Formal Paper #3

Elementary through high school age children are exposed to many different subjects during their school-aged years; mathematics, history, English, home economics, chemistry, biology and many other sciences, and that is only to name a few. Even though the children sit in the classroom for about eight hours a day and learn all these subjects they never really get the opportunity to explore anything new or different; they do not ever venture out into the world. The classroom is their cage, and many children sit at their desk and stare out of the window of their classroom peering into a world they wish they could be a real part of. Sure, history and geography class teach us about the world, but most school-aged children still do not even realize that there is a whole other world outside of their classroom, school bus and home. These children do not realize that there are billions and billions of people outside of America. Foreign language classes would help free these children, in kindergarten through high school, from their naïve bubble and show them a world of experiences they never knew they could have.

Kindergarten through high school is the time to provide students with the tools they will need to succeed in the real world. These school years are the best time for kids to learn about themselves and what it is they are capable of. Students should be challenged and given opportunities to discover the things about themselves they never knew. School aged children should be given opportunities to branch out and experience new things that can provide them with the confidence they need to succeed in whatever is it they desire. Learning a second or even third language can build that confidence within each student, and provide him or her with the buoyancy they need to succeed. Children actually learn faster and retain more of language than do adults and being bilingual even builds brainpower that is why it is very important to teach new language during the school age years. Students who attain a second language in school often perform better on tests than those that do not learn a second language. Studying a foreign language also provides students with better verbal skills and problem-solving abilities; tools they will need later in life.

Between birth and puberty when children are in the elementary and middle school ages they can learn multiple languages and echo accents easily. Studies have shown that children have an innate ability to hear differences in languages. The young human brain is designed in a way that allows children to pick up language naturally, however as we age our ability to soak up language diminishes therefore starting to learn multiple languages early in life at the elementary age is beneficial to children. In our fast paced and ever shrinking world and with our ever increasingly global economy, we should be raising the kindergarten through high school kids to be global citizens. It is predicted that by 2025 China will be the world’s leading economy, the future leaders of our country need to be able to communicate with people from other countries, without that ability the world’s economy will fail and our children will be left behind without the tools to fix the problems. Learning early how to communicate with multiple cultures of people is beneficial and can give a young student pride and confidence to be able to branch out to communicate with new people and even experience new cultures. Success in all of the majour subject areas is important to a child’s future just as much as learning new language is. Learning a foreign language can assist a student to be successful in the other subject areas like English, math, and the sciences. Understanding the structure and use of another language can even build a better understanding of the students’ own language as well. The ability to describe something in more than one way provides for better creativity and flexibility in thought patterns, which is useful in problem solving areas such as mathematics and also many sciences. Students who succeed in foreign language studies are more susceptible to acquire high grades in all of the other subject areas that they study in school.

Extra curricular activities such as sports, band, and art clubs are very important to help students gain confidence and other tools they'll need in life. These extra curricular activities are important ways of allowing a student to express themselves, but learning a new language should not be optional like the extra curricular activities are; it should be a mandatory part of the core curriculum throughout the elementary and high school years. Each student should have to have a passing grade in a certain number of language credits in order to even graduate. Many schools do not enforce learning a new language, which is very important in the Kindergarten through high school times of their lives. The students who are in a school district that does not provide foreign language studies tend to struggle later in life with finding a job or succeeding to their full potential in their chosen career field. Taking a foreign language class should be the norm and standard for every high school across our entire nation. My stepsons are in 6th and 7th grade, learning a language is not required of them, it is very strange and frustrating to me that they are not being taught a foreign language and are not being given the opportunity to learn to communicate with other people around the world. The United States of America is a very diverse nation and there are many non-English speaking people living in American cities and towns. Language barriers in America are frequent causes of confusion and misunderstanding amoung people living in a community together. In my primary education in New York, from elementary school through high school graduation, I had no choice but to learn a new language. I was able to choose which language, but I had to choose one nonetheless. Having a second language had always helped me succeed in my other classes and it also helped me succeed later in life when I was able to apply for jobs that required bilingualism, and when I was able to communicate with the Spanish-speaking people in my community.

There are over thirty five million people in America who speak Spanish as their first language, but today only fifteen percent of public elementary schools teach a foreign language. As global events change so too do the patterns of learning a new language. Marisa Cohen from Parents Magazine writes, “For instance, Russian lessons spiked during the Cold War, while Japanese became popular in the 1980s as Japan became a global business leader. Now Mandarin is becoming the must-learn foreign language, a nod to the fact that experts predict China will become the world's number-one economy by the time our preschoolers finish college.” Her description explains just how important the attainment of a foreign language is. Martha Abbott, the executive director of education on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages also argues in support of learning foreign language, she says, "In many cultures, business doesn't get done in the conference room -- it happens at social events, and in these settings you can't always rely on an interpreter being there." Her statement makes an argument supporting the teaching of foreign language to grade school children. Abbott mentions the reliance on an interpreter; if American children were being taught foreign language they could actually be the interpreter for someone else instead of needing an interpreter for themselves. The interpreter had to learn both languages to be able to do his or her job. Attaining a foreign language just makes sense, and schools across the nation need to implement a foreign language program into the everyday core curriculum.

*http://www.cal.org
*Parents Magazine

revisions for paper 3

Elementary through high school age children are exposed to many different subjects during their school-aged years. Mathematics, history, English, home economics, chemistry, biology and many other sciences, and that is only to name a few. Even though the children sit in a classroom for eight hours a day and learn all these subjects, they never really get the opportunity to explore anything new or different, they do not ever venture out into the world. The classroom is their cage, and many children sit and stare out of the window of their classroom peering out into a world they wish they could be a real part of. Sure history and geography class teach us about the world, but most school-aged children still do not even realize that there is a whole other world outside of their classroom, school bus and home. These children do not realize that there are billions and billions of people outside of America. Foreign language classes would help free these children, in kindergarten through high school, from their naïve bubble and show them a world of experiences they never knew they could have.

Between birth and puberty when children are in the elementary and middle school ages they can learn multiple languages and echo accents easily.

High school is a time for preparing students and the time to provide them with the tools they will need to succeed in the "real world". The high school years are the best time for kids to learn about themselves and what it is they are capable of. Students should be challenged and given opportunities to discover the things about themselves they never knew. High school students should be given opportunities to branch out and experience new things that can provide them with the confidence they need to succeed in whatever is it they desire. High school is also a time to teach them responsibility for themselves and the things they choose to do; it is the best time to provide students with tools like proper study habits, interpersonal communication, what is means to qualify for a job or position or even what it means to make yourself desirable in the educational and then job field they choose.

I know that extra curricular activities such as sports, band, and arts clubs are very important to help students gain confidence and other tools they'll need in life. In my high school learning a new language was not an option, each student had to have a passing grade in a certain number of language credits in order to even graduate; my stepsons' school does not enforce learning a new language, which i feel is very important in the k-12 times of their lives. Extra curricular activities were not an option at my high school either. Each student had to participate in some sort of "elective" class or club. This should be the norm and standard for every high school across our nation and if parents feel that the extra class or club is bringing down the child's grades, then there should be a set time in the school for all kids who are having trouble in their classes to attend tutoring, this way they can have one on one time with their teacher and better understand the lessons they struggle with. My stepsons are in 6th and 7th grade, learning a language is not required of them, it is very strange to me, because in my k-12 career i had no choice but to learn a new language, i was able to choose which language, but i had to choose one nonetheless. Having a second language helped me succeed in my other classes and it helped me succeed later in life when i was able to apply for jobs that required bilingualism.

Students who struggle in class should be allowed to have after school tutoring with their teachers. It should be required of the teachers to stay after school and have available times for students to come by the classroom for extra one on one help.

points to make:

·      Experience new culture

·      Gain confidence, have something to be proud of

·      Gain better understanding of their own language (English)

·      Have some fun in their busy school day

·      Gain a skill that can help them succeed in an ever expanding and fast paced world (business/foreign trade)

·       

Rough draft for paper #3

High school is a time for preparing students and the time to provide them with the tools they will need to succeed in the "real world". The high school years are the best time for kids to learn about themselves and what it is they are capable of. Students should be challenged and given opportunities to discover the things about themselves they never knew. High school students should be given opportunities to branch out and experience new things that can provide them with the confidence they need to succeed in whatever is it they desire. High school is also a time to teach them responsibility for themselves and the things they choose to do; it is the best time to provide students with tools like proper study habits, interpersonal communication, what is means to qualify for a job or position or even what it means to make yourself desirable in the educational and then job field they choose.

I know that extra curricular activities such as sports, band, and arts clubs are very important to help students gain confidence and other tools they'll need in life. In my high school learning a new language was not an option, each student had to have a passing grade in a certain number of language credits in order to even graduate; my stepsons' school does not enforce learning a new language, which i feel is very important in the k-12 times of their lives. Extra curricular activities were not an option at my high school either. Each student had to participate in some sort of "elective" class or club. This should be the norm and standard for every high school across our nation and if parents feel that the extra class or club is bringing down the child's grades, then there should be a set time in the school for all kids who are having trouble in their classes to attend tutoring, this way they can have one on one time with their teacher and better understand the lessons they struggle with. My stepsons are in 6th and 7th grade, learning a language is not required of them, it is very strange to me, because in my k-12 career i had no choice but to learn a new language, i was able to choose which language, but i had to choose one nonetheless. Having a second language helped me succeed in my other classes and it helped me succeed later in life when i was able to apply for jobs that required bilingualism.

Students who struggle in class should be allowed to have after school tutoring with their teachers. It should be required of the teachers to stay after school and have available times for students to come by the classroom for extra one on one help.

what do you think high school is for?

High school is for preparing students with the tools they will need to succeed in the "real world". The high school years are the best time for kids to learn about themselves and what exactly they are capable of, they should be challenged and given opportunities to discover the thing about themselves they never knew. High school students should be given opportunities to branch out and experience new things, this would provide them with the confidence they need to succeed in whatever is it they desire. High school is also a time to teach responsibility for yourself, and it is the best time to provide students with tools like proper study habits, interpersonal communication, what is means to qualify for a job or position or even what it means to make yourself desirable in the education and then job field you choose. I know that extra curricular activities such as sports, band, and arts clubs are very important to help students gain confidence and other tools they'll need in life. In my high school learning a new language was not an option, each student had to have a passing grade in a certain number of language credits in order to even graduate, extra curricula's were not an option either. each student had to participate in some sort of "elective" class or club. This should be the norm and standard for every high school across our nation and if parents feel that the extra class or club is bringing down the child's grades, then there should be a set time in the school for all kids who are having trouble in their classes to attend tutoring, this way they can have one on one time with their teacher and better understand the lessons they struggle with. My stepsons are in 6th and 7th grade, learning a language is not required of them, it is very strange to me, because in my k-12 career i had no choice but to learn a new language, i was able to choose which language, but i had to choose one nonetheless. Having a second language helped me succeed in my other classes and it helped me succeed later in life when i was able to apply for jobs that required bilingualism.

Gatto vs my high school

In Gatto’s “Against Schools, How Schools Cripple Our Kids.” He states that he felt the need to go against the norm of the high school system and free his students from their everyday boredom.

 “I feel I had to defy the custom, bend the law, to help kids break out of the trap of boredom.”

My high school was, as I imagine all high schools are, overloaded with daily monotonous drudgery and endless mind numbing lectures from teachers who didn't even want to be there. It wasn't just the students that needed a little thrill in the daily high school life, the teachers were just as robotic and droned out as every student in there. The whole school was zombie-like. Teachers, students, guidance counselors and the like…and I swear those lunch ladies knew how to stand up, serve food AND sleep!

Chalk illustrations 2

In “The Answer Sheet by Mike Rose” He says that students are not getting an engaging and challenging education. While watching chalk Mr. Lowrey had an incident with one student. While he was attempting to discipline the one, he left the rest of the class complete unattended and disengaged. After the public altercation the classroom was laughing out of what seemed to be embarrassment. He says “im going to leave, and when I come back I want to see who is going to teach this class.” There were several incidents when his classroom was told to “just read” or “just learn what’s on the board.” There was one time when he even had his classroom learning something that didn’t even pertain to that specific class. 
On the Daily Show, Lewis Black, did a segment called “Back in Black.” He showed a portion where the students reflected to the camera their thoughts of their teacher. A girl says “I’m actually very concerned that he is not even qualified to be a teacher” We can relate this to Mr. Lowrey becoming a history teacher because a career placement test told him he would make a good history teacher. Mr. Lowery had no prior training or teaching experience, so obviously when he gets into the teaching scenario he is not going to deliver. Mr. Lowery was so introvert that he could not relate to his students, although he made a solid effort towards the end. I would suggest he would be the type to complete a technical writing.

Chalk illustrations

In Freire’s “The Banking Concept of Education.” He says that a serious issue with the banking concept of learning is the mentality of “the teacher knows everything and the student knows nothing”. While watching Chalk, there was a time when the history teacher “Mr. Stroope” held one of his students after class to talk with her. The teacher asked the student not to know more than him in class. He asked the student to “dumb” down her knowledge of Social Studies, to make the rest of the class feel like he knew it all, he was the one with the brain. 
In Gatto’s “Against Schools, How Schools Cripple Our Kids.” He says “I feel I had to defy the custom, bend the law, to help kids break out of the trap of boredom.” Coach Webb seemed to express this same desire. She took her students into a classroom and instead of doing the normal physical education she told them they were going to be trying something different. She then led them into some “awkward’ yoga positions. One kid admitted to feeling “hot and vulnerable” which then caused the class to erupt in laughter and become more engaged in the activity. 

notes on Chalk

The "Super Size Me" guy!
family tells war stories about students, admin, faculty....
but they never quit because they loved being teachers.
The teachrs r so important!


Chalk:
YIKES! half of the Ts quit within the 1st 3 years of T-ing
making jokes to make students comfortable.
the history T is so uncomfortable. well now i know why! He has NEVER taught before!!

Teachers in the lounge talking about their school experience...Ridiculous! they all had problems.

These Ts and the AP are all new in so inexperienced and untrained.

The Ts are more like monkeys, performers for the evaluators, they can't focus on teaching...not really.

The AP has to heavy of a work load, she doesn't get home until after 10pm.
The students are out of control and don't listen to the T, the Ts have not been educated in ways to diffuse tough situations between students.

Other Ts like the coach are taking over the way the other Ts run their classroom.
Not only do Ts have to worry and  deal with students and their poor behaviours, but they also have to deal with workplace issues like working well with other Ts there.

Coach has an idea that if you make students believe that you think they have a lot of potential then they will live up to that and try harder.

the T is looking for books on classroom management...did he not take any course on that in college?!

The AP is overworked and stressed out, she has no time to unwind.

a T, tells the student to "use words that he can understand" he tells his students to tone down their knowledge. Obviously the Ts have not been well educated at all!

Students are uncomfortable and miserable.
The T thats the newest is experimenting with ways to teach.

The whole theme of this movie seems to be the lack of qualifications that the teachers have!

The administration treats the teachers and faculty worse than they treat the students, they treat them like the Ts are children!

I wonder how much of this mockumentary is accurate.
Most of the Ts are too preoccupied with whats goig on in their lives that they do not really focus on teaching.

The new T says that teaching takes up all of his life and he has no time for a personal life. thats sad.

I feel bad for the history T. He wants to make a diff. He wants to be a good teachers and do what he feels is right, but the students don't care, the administration doesn't care....he has a vision of what teaching should be like and it is not turning out the way he thought it would.

The teachers are discussing bad experiences they've had, like horror stories about being teachers, they are afraid of their students and afraid of the administration that observes them and rules over them.

The Social studies teacher just wants to win some award from the school. he goes "over the top" only to be seen and looked at by his superiors.

the coach says "i had a feeling that she would bridge the gap between teaching and administration"...

The social studies teacher is so focused on winning the teacher award that he is not even teaching his class. He used his students to try to win and when he didn't win he reacted crazy in the classroom.

The ap goes in to cover for substitute teachers when they can't make it. she was happiest in the classroom. she misses the students that care and put forth effort.

The history teacher is becoming comfortable in the classroom, it only too him all year, congrats sir.
in college he should've had classroom time so that he wouldn't have gone through all of the awkward and poor teaching.

I think this film is meant to show that it is not only the high school level of education that is suffering but also the college level. how poor is the education of the educators?! and what about the professors that educate the teachers?....and so on...?

I guess we go to high school and learn from people who don't know what they're doing, but they went to college to learn from people who don't know what they're doing, and those people went to university and were taught by people who have been through the same system! its a vicious cycle.
the history professor says "being a teacher is a gift, maybe it's something you can learn, but no one's taught me.".....well thats what he should've been in school for, to learn how to be a teacher....guess not huh?

drafting exercise

This exercise was helpful in getting my thoughts out onto paper and then i could organize the answers and sentences into a paragraph for my essay. Writing out the examples and then descriptions we would use for our essay before writing the essay was a very helpful tool, Now I have the essay already written on the exercise paper and io just need to develop it further into a formal paper.

rough draft of paper 2

I need to develop an introduction and a conclusion. i always find these two paragraphs the hardest to write.

My junior high school history teacher was an example of a difficult teacher; he was precisely the type of teacher that Mr. Dalton at Walton Prep School would approve of. When I was 15 years old and still an ornery teenager, I walked into Mr. Robinson's eighth period History class on the third floor of Heritage Jr. High. Having been a monastery before it became a school, Heritage was the newest and nicest of the three Jr. Highs in town. Mr. Robinson sat at his huge grey metal desk always wearing a black coloured shirt and khaki trousers. His oversized bright yellow pencil never went unnoticed, sitting at the front of his desk it boasted his name engraved in big bold black letters "Mr. Robinson". His class was held toward the end of the day, there were nine periods in total for a full day of school and Mr. Robinson's lengthy history class was in period eight. As each student drug their feet slugging into the classroom, already weary and worn down from the long day of classes, our first sight was of Mr. Robinson sitting proudly at his desk straight in front of the door. After the students sat down in their chosen seats, each one next to their best friend or favourite classmate, Mr. Robinson made everyone stand up and line shoulder to shoulder against the far wall of the classroom. He then called out each student very official-like, by last name first and first name second. Pointing to a specific faded brown desk in the room directing that each student called must sit there in the exact assigned seat. Once all seats were assigned Mr. Robinson handed out a contract which stated that each individual in the classroom would be responsible for coming to class daily, paying attention, remaining in their assigned seats, taking notes, and keeping quiet; "quiet" having been printed in bold, larger font and underlined. This contract was to be signed, in black ink only, by every student sitting in the classroom. This all was only the first day of class; Mr. Robinson’s lectures were drawn out, lengthy monotone hours of excruciating torture. The moment which stands out to me the most from Mr. Robinson’s class was on a very dark and rainy day, the lights were shut down low and the overhead projector was showing an image of something very historical I’m sure; many students had dozed off for a nice afternoon nap and Mr. Robinson announced in a loud boisterous voice, “if you want to sleep in my class I don’t care, but you better learn to sleep with your eyes open and at least pretend like you’re paying attention.” Mr. Robinson was so disconnected and disengaged that I still to this day view him as a cold, empty robot.

Mr. Keating was quite the opposite of my lackluster history teacher; he was a positive example of a great teacher. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he was personable, connected with the students and pulled in their attention. When Mr. Keating first entered the classroom he was whistling and walking with a strut, he was happy and proud to be there. He walked straight through the classroom, back out through the other door and poked his head back in and said “well come on”. The students didn’t know what to do; they had never in their academic careers experienced such a strange professor before. Mr. Keating lead the students to the hallway where pictures of past alumni hung behind glass cabinets, he made the students realize that these men could be their possible future. Mr. Keating opened the students eyes to what really lies ahead of them and the choices they have in front of them to decide on who and what they will become “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.” Seize the day was his advice to the students; in only the first class Mr. Keating took the students outside of the classroom and pulled in their attention leaving them mesmerized and excited to learn. In his vision of what a teacher should be Mr. Keating felt passionately that “the idea of educating was to learn to think for yourself.” I love this point of view because it resonates with me and makes me want to do better for myself. Mr. Keating takes the students outside to the soccer field and tells one of the boys “let it fill your soul”, this shows how he wanted his students to open up and become more than what society demands of them and what it wants to place them in.

Mr. Keating and Mr. Robinson have two very different styles of teaching. While they both managed to get their knowledge, information and desired messages across to their students, one was much more dynamic and effective on the lives of each student. Mr. Robinson’s monotone and lackluster lectures were able to help students pass tests and learn what the curriculum required of them, but it was not conducive to creative thinking or self-enrichment. Mr. Keating however, was very personable and connected with his students; he saw potential in each one that perhaps they had not yet seen in themselves. Mr. Keating’s methods of teaching captivated all the students’ attention and inspired to be more than they originally thought they could be. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he cared; his passion for teaching allowed him to make learning fun and interesting for all of his students, despite their reservations and inhibitions.

difference between the schools

The two high schools in the movies that we watched, "Stand and Deliver" and "Dead Poets Society" are very different and yet also similar. Each school intends to create a certain type of student, they set them in classrooms and feed information to them in order to get the students to pass an exam and move on to the next class and pass the next exam.....on and on and on an endless procedure until graduation and then they can move on to college and do the same thing. Receive information and then regurgitate it back onto an exam or test and prove you were paying attention in your class. Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating intended to break this vicious cycle. They wanted their students to break out of the places in which society put them and become more than what they thought they could. Mr. Escalante's school was very poor and had little funding, the education there was lacking and students received minimal encouragement or assistance. Mr. Escalante wanted his students to become more than they had been told they could, he wanted them to pass the AP exam and have a better opportunity for college than they had previously been given. Mr. Keating wanted his students to become more than they had been told they could become in a different way than Mr. Escalante. Mr. Keating wanted his students to break away from the exams and constant studying just for college preparation, he want his students to be able to think for themselves and become what ever it is they desired, not what they had been told they had to be, by their parents and educators. the students of Welton had so many opportunities already, the school was prestigious and wealthy, these kids could be anything they wanted, they didn't all have to be stuck in an endless cycle of doctors and lawyers and such. They should learn to think for themselves and decide their own future, this was Mr. Keating's belief and he was determined to help his students break free and become their own person.

Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland

Mike Rose's essay describes his own school, but I wonder if he realized as he was writing it that there are many schools just like in the United States. His description of Mr. MacFarland is very similar to Mr. Escalante in the movie "Stand and Deliver". Both MR. Escalant and Mr. MacFarland were very similar in that they wanted their students to succeed. They both had studying sessions held at their houses and took personal interest in their students. They are both examples of good teachers, but these type of teachers are rare. Most teachers do not take time outside of school hours to help or hang out or be a part of students lives. It is a comfort to know that Mr. Escalante and Mr. MacFarland are examples of at least a few teachers that may be out there making better students and providing encouragements and enrichment in the lives of their students.

Mike Rose essay 2

Mike Rose's essay is so far my favourite reading in this class, it hits home for me. His description of his school and his experience in it reminds me so much of my own school. The separation of "slow learners" and the "elite students" is too common an attribute of schools in the United States, as this also took place in my high school in New York. I was in the "Advanced Placement" and "Honours" classes throughout my jr. high and high-school experience, of course I was always only after that extrinsic reward of receiving an "A", and I wonder now, after reading Rose's essay, if I truly learned enough.
My high school, like many American schools I imagine, was driven to achieve academic excellence. Standardized tests and "advanced placement" were pushed on students like a lemon juicer and we were the lemons. In order to get more funding for the school, it had to be ranked high in academic excellence. Similar to Mike Rose's experience in high school, many student fell through the cracks and the education was impersonal.
In my experience teachers do not take personal interest in their students, they may have after school homework help hours but they do not invite students to their house or hang out with them outside of school. I did have only one teacher who took a personal interest in me. He was my older sister's teacher the year before and then also had my younger sister in his class two years after me. He became pretty close with my family only because he had all three of us as his students. He is a great example of a good teacher, his after school hours were extended beyond other teachers' hours and he was very personable with students.

Formal Paper #2 Compare&Contrast

There are many different kinds of teachers, some are good, and some are great and others not so much. I have had my share of experiences with both good teachers and bad teachers. The movies we watched show examples of very good teachers. Mr. Keating from Dead Poets Society is an example of a great teacher; he connects with the students on a personal level and gets them to believe in themselves in a way they never thought to before. In contrast my high school history teacher, Mr. Robinson, was not such a great teacher. He was disconnected from the students of his class and this lead to a big conflict between the students and Mr. Robinson. His teaching style was quite the opposite of Mr. Keating’s in that Mr. Robinson only wanted to teach the curriculum and as the headmaster of Welton says “Prepare them for college, and the rest will take care of itself.”

My junior high school history teacher was an example of a difficult teacher; he was precisely the type of teacher that Mr. Dalton at Walton Prep School would approve of. When I was 15 years old and still an ornery teenager, I walked into Mr. Robinson's eighth period History class on the third floor of Heritage Jr. High. Having been a monastery before it became a school, Heritage was the newest and nicest of the three Jr. Highs in town. Mr. Robinson sat at his huge grey metal desk always wearing a black coloured shirt and khaki trousers. His oversized bright yellow pencil never went unnoticed, sitting at the front of his desk it boasted his name engraved in big bold black letters "Mr. Robinson". His class was held toward the end of the day, there were nine periods in total for a full day of school and Mr. Robinson's lengthy history class was in period eight. As each student drug their feet slugging into the classroom, already weary and worn down from the long day of classes, our first sight was of Mr. Robinson sitting proudly at his desk straight in front of the door. After the students sat down in their chosen seats, each one next to their best friend or favourite classmate, Mr. Robinson made everyone stand up and line shoulder to shoulder against the far wall of the classroom. He then called out each student very official-like, by last name first and first name second. Pointing to a specific faded brown desk in the room directing that each student called must sit there in the exact assigned seat. Once all seats were assigned Mr. Robinson handed out a contract which stated that each individual in the classroom would be responsible for coming to class daily, paying attention, remaining in their assigned seats, taking notes, and keeping quiet; "quiet" having been printed in bold, larger font and underlined. This contract was to be signed, in black ink only, by every student sitting in the classroom. This all was only the first day of class; Mr. Robinson’s lectures were drawn out, lengthy monotone hours of excruciating torture. The moment which stands out to me the most from Mr. Robinson’s class was on a very dark and rainy day, the lights were shut down low and the overhead projector was showing an image of something very historical I’m sure; many students had dozed off for a nice afternoon nap and Mr. Robinson announced in a loud boisterous voice, “if you want to sleep in my class I don’t care, but you better learn to sleep with your eyes open and at least pretend like you’re paying attention.” Mr. Robinson was so disconnected and disengaged that I still to this day view him as a cold, empty robot.

Mr. Keating was quite the opposite of my lackluster history teacher; he was a positive example of a great teacher. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he was personable, connected with the students and pulled in their attention. When Mr. Keating first entered the classroom he was whistling and walking with a strut, he was happy and proud to be there. He walked straight through the classroom, back out through the other door and poked his head back in and said “well come on”. The students didn’t know what to do; they had never in their academic careers experienced such a strange professor before. Mr. Keating lead the students to the hallway where pictures of past alumni hung behind glass cabinets, he made the students realize that these men could be their possible future. Mr. Keating opened the students eyes to what really lies ahead of them and the choices they have in front of them to decide on who and what they will become “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.” Seize the day was his advice to the students; in only the first class Mr. Keating took the students outside of the classroom and pulled in their attention leaving them mesmerized and excited to learn. In his vision of what a teacher should be Mr. Keating felt passionately that “the idea of educating was to learn to think for yourself.” I love this point of view because it resonates with me and makes me want to do better for myself. Mr. Keating takes the students outside to the soccer field and tells one of the boys “let it fill your soul”, this shows how he wanted his students to open up and become more than what society demands of them and what it wants to place them in.

Mr. Keating and Mr. Robinson have two very different styles of teaching. While they both managed to get their knowledge, information and desired messages across to their students, one was much more dynamic and effective on the lives of each student. Mr. Robinson’s monotone and lackluster lectures were able to help students pass tests and learn what the curriculum required of them, but it was not conducive to creative thinking or self-enrichment. Mr. Keating however, was very personable and connected with his students; he saw potential in each one that perhaps they had not yet seen in themselves. Mr. Keating’s methods of teaching captivated all the students’ attention and inspired to be more than they originally thought they could be. Mr. Keating was a great teacher because he cared; his passion for teaching allowed him to make learning fun and interesting for all of his students, despite their reservations and inhibitions.

Although there are many types and styles of teaching, some may be more effective than others. The comparison and contrast of both Mr. Robinson and Mr. Keating show that while some styles of teaching allow for a sensible acquisition of scholastic and programed material, others allow for students to break into their own and think for themselves. Students who have teachers like Mr. Keating can make the most of the time that has been given to them; these students can become more than the societal belief of what is successful. My favourite moment from the movie is when Mr. Keating explains the stanza, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, old time is still a flying, and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow will be dying." from Robert Herrick’s poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”. Mr. Keating makes it very simple and easy to understand, while inspiring his students at the same time; his translation of Herrick’s poem is simply “Carpe Diem, seize the day.”