Mr. Keating – a teacher that ought to be prevented from teaching!?

Dead Poets Society is a novel written by N.H. Kleinbaum. The book tells a story about young
boys and their new English teacher Mr. Keating at Welton Academy, a private school situated
in the remote hills of Vermont.

Keating comes with a very new and modern style of teaching to the old-fashioned school.
Most of the students like him a lot and his way but he seems not to be liked a lot for his
“…unorthodox teaching methods…” (p. 109, quote-Nolan) by the other teachers, the
student’s parents and especially by principle Nolan. Keating’s colleagues are all teaching the
old style with discipline and hard work. The new English teacher is a little bit crazy in his way
of teaching, e.g. he lets the students rip out pages of their textbook or he jumps on his desk.
The main difference between his style and the ‘old’ Welton teachers is that he wants his
students to think free and have their own opinion. That is stated in a lot quotes, one of them is
“When you read, don’t only consider what the author thinks, but take time to consider what
you think.” (p. 60). In my opinion it is very important to think on your own and “not end up in
conformity”. I can’t agree with others like Nolan and McAllister that the boys are too young
and impressionable to think for themselves, e.g. how Mr. McAllister questions that: “Ah, free
thinkers at seventeen!” (p. 44).

Another point that supports Keating and his style is his success by teaching the boys. Keating
is catching his pupils on his lessons.

They learn a lot from him, more than just poetry and

plain English. So does Todd, the once very shy student, make an enormous progress when he
wrote this really good poem (p. 145-147) and recited it in the cave in front of all the others.
You can also see the full respect that the students give him when at the end “…they are all
standing on their desks in silent salute to Mr. Keating.“

But the English teacher’s “revolution in the boy’s thinking” accidentally ends up in a disaster.
Neil Perry, like all the others, learned from Keating they have to self-think and to seize the
day (Carpe Diem). To “Seize the Day” means that they shall live an extraordinary life and
enjoy every day. While having that in mind, Neil discovers his passion for acting and
performs in a play, to do what he likes to (=he seizes his day). He gets into deep trouble for
that with his dad who doesn’t want him to “…waste [his] time with this absurd acting
business.“ This disputes goes that far that Mr. Perry wants to resign his son from Welton and
enrol him in a military school. That was totally unthinkable for Neil. The following night he
shot himself.

That was of course a tragedy also for everybody at Welton. The reason had to be found, why
Neil committed suicide. The investigations led to Keating. He should have encouraged the
boy “…to follow his obsession of acting when he knew it went directly against the explicit
orders of Neil’s parents” (p. 159/160) what led at the end to his death.

I don’t think at all, that Keating ought to be prevented from teaching for his style or the
reproaches Neil’s death is his fault. First, his style is successful; the students like it and learn
much more that way than learning the traditional way through discipline and hard work.
Second, as I already stated, you can not make Keating responsible for Neil committing suicide
cause he taught him how it is supposed to be; they learn for life and to think free. It was more
the old style of honour, discipline etc. which the teacher’s and his parents taught him that
killed Neil.