Day one Observations for Dead Poet's Society

·         Day one - Observations

·         Day Two – Observations

·         Very stern, not flexible, everyday late is one point late. It’s an all boys school called Helton. They had to see one of the teachers after lunch because they weren’t eating properly. They get in trouble badly for misbehaving.  One part in the movie when one boy in the group submits an article in the newspaper, and they get in trouble for it. They are brought into the commons area, and are talked to by the headmaster. They want girls in their school. And that is what the article was about. When the guy came forward, he got 5 whips from the wooden board.

·         Had pillars Discipline, Excellence, Tradition, ?

·         They have dorms, and are teenage boys. They all try and get together for study groups, but it looks to me as though their goofing off

·         They separate from their parents to go to school. The boys have big shoes to fill because many of their brothers went there. Toad Anderson’s dad was valedictorian. He wants his son to be just like him. For Toads birthday they gave him the same as they did the year before, but him and his friend laugh it off, then through it off the roof.

·         The parents are however still there for their child. They want the best for them, because they are paying for the schooling. Toad goes against his fellow peer when he says that he wants to be an actor, because that goes what his father wants. However sometimes the kids are so disciplined that they can’t talk to their own parents, and become somewhat defiant towards the parental rule. Neal finally got the part for the play, and is going to send a letter to his head master so that he can do it. He is going to forge the letter so it looks like his parent wrote it. Neal’s dad comes to the school, and yells at him for forging the letter to his headmaster. Neal’s dad looks like a fool, and a liar, and he takes it out on his son. His dad felt like he took way to many scarifies to get Neal into that school, and he didn’t want him to be distracted by extracurricular activities. The parents are strict, and the only thing they want their child doing is being successful. Throughout the movie this kind of gets in the way of their parent to child relationship.  Neal then gets to play in the play, and does an excellent job, after his dad shows up. His dad makes him go to Harvard to be a doctor. He doesn’t want to go because it’s 10 more years. His dad is extremely controlling and lives his life through his son. Neal eventually commits suicide.  All of his friends are very sad, especially Toad. His old teacher was very sad too.

·          When the bell rings, the boys go down to their first class

·         The students are very respectful. They pray before every meal, so it has to be a Christian or Catholic school. Then after the movie plays a little more you notice a change in the way that they act. They are still respectful but looser. They are growing into not following the rules, therefore went to the cave and smoked tobacco. They start drinking and going to parties.

·         The teaching is very awkward, strict, and the teachers are not to be tested, he took them out to the hallway, and told them they are all flowers that are being fertilized at that school. Robin William’s makes them look at things in a different way. He has them stand on the desks to see things from different angles. He has fun lectures, and has them write poetry, and have them read it out loud.  The students are kind of freaked out. Then he took them outside so they could kick the ball after reading a stanza in the poem, then he has them listen to music, kick a ball, and read the stanza. The teacher takes them outside and has them play a ball game to have some fun. He has them take a stroll outside of the school, then they chant, which will help them with their poetry. He describes that everyone is different in their strides. It’s maintaining your beliefs.

·         The teacher tells them to make their lives as extraordinary as possible. Sometimes they get in trouble from the headmaster by the way they are teaching their students

·         Dr. Hegert & Max went to see Mrs. Danberry, and they said Max looked like his father

·         Max comes back after dinner, and is in a bad mood because he is in love, but she is engaged to Chat Danberry. He finally sees her again as a cheerleader, and yet again gets depressed because of Chat. He finally decided to call her, and then hangs up. Then he calls back, and talks to her. She gets invited to a party with her. However it’s for a party for Chat. They all get drunk, and he sees her passed out on the couch. As he kisses her forehead, Chat’s friend finds out, and he tries to kick that guys butt. To apologize, he brings her flowers, and writes her a poem, but she rejects them to save her boyfriend, and also her reputation. But he doesn’t take no for an answer, so he goes into her class and reads her the poem. All of his friends were happy that he read it to her. But he wouldn’t tell them what she said after. Chris comes to his school, and tells him that he cannot be in her life anymore. But he told her he loved her, a she said she could care less about her. But eventually she says yes to going to the play with him so they can watch Neal. They both enjoy the play, and hold hands.

·         They are looking at Understanding poetry, and he uses a graph to show the importance of the poem, then he has them rip out the entire page of “Understand poetry” Then another teacher comes in and saws “What the hell is going on in here?”  then the other teach comes out and says that he doesn’t hear enough ripping. Learn to think for themselves, words and ideas can change the word. But when the headmaster finds out that the teacher is teaching them to in their own way, he goes to his students, and says that they need to straighten up. Because they have respect for him, they agreed to not get expelled from school so they could attend his classes.

·         Because the school is so strict, when the teacher tells the students to do something that would go against the school rules, they get shocked and don’t do it because they think they will get in trouble. Other teachers yell at them, and make them be quite and behave, they say things like “Oh shut up!” or “Cut out that racquet in there!” But his English teacher takes time to get to know his students so that they come to him for advice. And eventually Neal doesn come to hi for advice, and the teacher tells him that he needs to talk to his dad before the following night so that his dad would allow him to do the play.

·         The group of boys is like the jocks of school. They like to frink and smoke, and do stuff that is against the rules.

·         They decide to go to the cave that their teacher was talking about. They want to know what the Dead Poet Society was, so he told them it was a club that they read Poetry. They are getting all the things they need in order to prepare themselves for the cave. They leave in the middle of the night, the dog starts barking, and the teacher comes out to see what’s going on.  They dress in black coats, and run away from the school. They reunite the Dead Poet Society They make fun or the Poets by acting like Indians.   They play around with each other to try and scare each other. They frequently go to the cave to recite poems. Then the smoke there and have girls there.

·         He knows that it scares the hell out of Mr. Anderson to recite the poem. He gets humiliated when the teacher asks him to recite his poem, and he doesn’t have one. Since he doesn’t have a poem the teacher makes him “Yawp” in front of the classes. The teacher figures out that he does have a poet in front of him. Then He tells him to yell out every single thing he is thinking, and eventually it becomes a poem.

How it is different from Stand & Deliver

·         Well, instead of using firm teaching methods, and point out the kid that is struggling in the class, he points out that the entire class needs to loosen up and live a little

·         He wants them to read and write poetry so that they can find the different angles on a subject view instead of just seeing it broadly

·         The Similarities are that they use humor in order to teach their students, but they are still firm on what their goals are for the students, and their class as a whole.

·         They also point out the weakest link in the class, and makes sure that he embarrasses them to motivate them to try hard.

·         The children are defiant in both movies, but in different ways. In Stand and Deliver they don’t want to do their homework, nor follow direction. In Dead Poets, they don’t want to rip pages in books,  and they don’t want to stand on the desks.

·         They are very reluctant in following direction

·         Because of the teacher that taught he to think for himself Neal wanted to follow his dream, not his dads dream. This made him inspire to be an actor, but since his father said he became defiant.

·         This movie is very similar to Stand and Deliver because both teachers believed in their student. They fought for their students, and believed that they could achieve anything.