When we look at education in the American culture, we see that it has several oppositions from various sources. Oppositions such as money, location, children’s economic status, crime rate in the school’s location, government backing, and the list goes on. But do these things affect the outcome of the education of the children. No, the real source of education is not money or social status or location of the building, it is the teachers. They are what make the difference when faced with hardships in schools. What makes a good teacher? We look at the fictional characters Mr. Escalante, from the film “Stand and Deliver” (who is based on a real person) and Mr. Keating, from the film “Dead Poets Society.” Both were excellent teachers, and if we analyze their character, both were excellent teachers because of their knowledge of a subject, passion to teach, and ability to teach different students. A successful teacher is one who is knowledgeable and passionate about their topic, and more importantly, can invoke thought and understanding of that topic to a variety of students with different learning styles and capabilities.
Mr. Escalante gave up a better paying job to teach mathematics at a school in the ghetto. He risked his safety by going there due to gang activity; he even had his car burglarized on the first day. When he is finally allowed to teach calculus, he puts in extra hours, makes his students sign contracts and get parental consent to do those hours. Clearly he is dedicated to his cause. When we look at Mr. Keating, we see many similarities in dedication. Though he is not physically in danger at Welton Academy, we get the impression that he did not like it there as a student when he tells his students that he too graduated from “Hellton Academy.” Mr. Keating also states several times in the film "I love to teach." Making difficult sacrifices to a largely thankless and low paying job is commitment. When someone is passionate about something such as teaching, they commit to making it better for the student and they become a better teacher. These two teachers are portrayed as being top in their field to the viewer, and this is largely because of their passion for teaching.
Any teacher can read the facts of a subject to a bunch of kids and say the students learned the material. But it takes much more than just reciting a text book to get a student to think about the material, to wonder the why’s, to see the practicality of math, to understand what an artist is really depicting in their painting. Mr. Escalante shows the students that math is important and useful; he tells them “they must learn calculus to get a good job.” Escalante also uses analogies the student would know, such as the “gigolos” which he used in his basic math class to show students how numbers can matter. Relating the subject to real life is a proven method for Education. Mr. Keating uses another approach, still effective but slightly different. In the film when Mr. Keating assigns a poem to be written, one of his students does not complete the assignment. So Mr. Keating puts him on the spot in front of the class and asks him questions to create a poem. As the student answers, he articulates his response and makes poetry out of his actual feelings about the questions. This ability to relate the topic to where it fits in life is a vital tool, one that many textbook reciting teachers cannot do. It is an invaluable trait that great teachers all possess.
Often there are students that do not have a desire to learn a topic, whether it is English, mathematics, history, or any other topic, those students end up being difficult, hindering others, and negatively affecting the outcome of the class. Being able to get students like this to think about the material, to actually put forth some effort into learning it, can be a near impossible task. Mr. Escalante does this using a tough love approach. He singles the students out when they act out about learning, he put one girl at the front of the room when she refused to take a quiz, he got in the face of a guy who was a known affiliate of a gang, threatened him, called him out by making it obvious how ignorant he was to the rest of the class. He used their lack of understanding of the topic to make them feel as though they needed to know it. Mr. Keating used a similar approach, but his used their knowledge against them in a different way. In the film when Mr. Keating assigns the poem, one of the boys in the class gives a simple, effortless poem, he had obviously not taken the writing seriously and presented a joke. But he did not understand poetry; in front of the class Mr. Keating explained the significance of such a poem, what it can really mean, that it was not a joke. Mr. Keating essentially brought him into the reality of the subject and the impact it could have. These teachers effectively used their knowledge of a subject and their ability to play a student’s abilities and weaknesses to get them to take the class seriously and actually learn something.
Few teachers possess all of the qualities to get through to a student, to really make them think about a subject and relate it to real life scenarios. Most teachers have knowledge, but cannot always relate it. Many can just recite the words in the book picked by the school district. But there are very few that have a passion and the social understanding to relate to youth and actually educate them. This kind of ability is truly what makes a successful teacher. A teacher with the knowledge and passion to get through to all of their students, through a variety of methods that can deeply impact youth, is a vital person in our complex society.
