Dead Poet's Society
May. 4th, 2012 07:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWatched Dead Poet's Society last night. It gave me whiplash, because for half of Mr. Keating's scenes I was all "BEST TEACHER EVER" (which is how you're supposed to react) and for the other half, I was like, "You are so lucky this is a movie and your students are scripted to respond correctly, because otherwise you would be scarring some of them for life."
Case in point: the scene where Keating makes Todd Anderson loose a "barbaric yawp." First, he teases Anderson about being afraid of public speaking. It's very gentle teasing, but still, if one of my teachers had informed the entire class that I was afraid of something - I wasn't afraid of public speaking, but something else - I would have shriveled up and died on the spot.
Then, desirous of effecting instant desensitization to the terrors of public speaking, Keating drags Anderson to the front of the class so he can yawp properly, in front of everyone, with all of them staring at him. When Anderson fails to yawp loudly enough, Keating basically attempts to goad him into shouting.
As this is a movie, this works just fine, but I'm pretty sure that in real life 90% of shy students would react one of two ways. Either they'll stand at the front of the room, humiliated and miserable and incapable of yawping (barbarically or otherwise) for the endless eternity it will take the teacher to let them sit; or they will cracks like eggs halfway through the yawping session and flee the classroom weeping.
Either way, their fear of public speaking will be magnified tenfold.
And sure, maybe the other 10% will find their inner yawpmeister (although I doubt most of them will spontaneously spout poetry like Anderson). But a teaching method with a 10% rate of success versus a 90% rate of "that was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life" is a BAD TEACHING METHOD.
Case in point: the scene where Keating makes Todd Anderson loose a "barbaric yawp." First, he teases Anderson about being afraid of public speaking. It's very gentle teasing, but still, if one of my teachers had informed the entire class that I was afraid of something - I wasn't afraid of public speaking, but something else - I would have shriveled up and died on the spot.
Then, desirous of effecting instant desensitization to the terrors of public speaking, Keating drags Anderson to the front of the class so he can yawp properly, in front of everyone, with all of them staring at him. When Anderson fails to yawp loudly enough, Keating basically attempts to goad him into shouting.
As this is a movie, this works just fine, but I'm pretty sure that in real life 90% of shy students would react one of two ways. Either they'll stand at the front of the room, humiliated and miserable and incapable of yawping (barbarically or otherwise) for the endless eternity it will take the teacher to let them sit; or they will cracks like eggs halfway through the yawping session and flee the classroom weeping.
Either way, their fear of public speaking will be magnified tenfold.
And sure, maybe the other 10% will find their inner yawpmeister (although I doubt most of them will spontaneously spout poetry like Anderson). But a teaching method with a 10% rate of success versus a 90% rate of "that was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life" is a BAD TEACHING METHOD.
