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Does the movie Dead Poets Society demonstrate education as the practice of freedom and engaged pedagogy or does it mirror the "banking concept" of education? I'm convinced this film reflects both aspects of education. What does engaged pedagogy and "banking concept" of education mean? In English III Reader " Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of freedom" by bell hooks states that engaged pedagogy is when the education is a mutual labor amongst the teacher and the students, meaning that both share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of learning. The "banking concept" of education is the approach to learning that is rooted in the notion that all students need to do is consume information fed to them by a professor and be able to memorize and store it. In the movie Dead Poets Society there is gender and class patterns.
The gender is all male, because Helton is an all boys preparatory school. All the boys who attend this school are from a high class; wealthy families and backgrounds. The film does not explicit that there is a standard race of all white students, but it is implicit; the administration doesn't say any African Americans allowed, but the video shows all white male students. The scene I want to analyze first encourages the idea of engaged pedagogy and education as the practice of education. This idea of education occurs when the boys enter the classroom of Robin Williams; he his John Keating in the film.
Robin Williams portrays the passionate English professor, John Keating, who inspires is students to live life to the fullest. John Keating purposely tries to avoid the traditional ways of Helton; teaching and preaching the banking concept of education. The scene begins with the boys sitting at their desks in John Keating's classroom awaiting his appearance. This is Mr.
Keating's first year at Helton and the students are unaware of his teaching strategies. Mr. Keating enters the classroom and the students stare at him examining is every move. All the while Mr.
Keating knows the boy's eyes are on him. He walks around the classroom and immediately turns and walks back out of the classroom and waits in the hall. At this time the camera is emphasizing the expressions of the students' faces who are in much amazement not knowing what Mr. Keating is up to. "Are you coming?" Mr.
Keating says has his head reappears along side the door. Again the camera surveys the expressions of the students who are now staring at one another not knowing whether to leave the class and enter the hall or stay put in their seats. After many seconds a couple of the boys begin to rise and leave the room and then the rest of the class follows. Mr. Keating takes the students from their natural learning environment into the hall.
Having the students leave from their natural learning environment I believe is an example of engaged pedagogy. Mr. Keating has the boys surround the picture case located in the hallway. The picture case has within it all the faces of the alumni since 1859. "In this class you can either call me Mr.
Keating or if your slightly more daring O' Captain my Captain, " Keating said. John Keating then calls upon Mr. Put to read a passage by Walt Whitman "O' Captain my Captain" from the English textbook. He asks the boys to think critically about what the passage just read actually means. They begin to discuss their opinions of the passage together; the teacher and the students. This mutual learning between the teacher and the student reflects back to the ideas of engaged pedagogy.
The entire time the teacher and students are in the hall most of the students are laughing and offering up ideas and opinions and the teacher is listening and encouraging class participation. This way of teaching expressed by John Keating clearly exemplifies the ideas of engaged pedagogy and education as the practice of freedom. The "banking concept" of education is simply the idea that the only job the students have while in the classroom and out of class when studying is to memorize and store the information given to them from the teachers and textbooks. In this movie there are many scenes that reflect the banking concept idea. The boys first day of classes at Helton shows the chemistry teacher assigning the first chapter to have read that night with the first 20 questions at the back of the book answered by the next class. The next class scene shows the French teacher walking back and forth in front of the class calling out words with the students repeating the words allowed.
The following class shows the students in the math class with the teacher lecturing the students about math terms. The camera surveys the room to show the students working diligently at their desk. In each of the scenes the teachers are demonstrating the banking concept of education where the students are shown receiving information from the teacher and textbooks and trying to memorize and store the information given to them by the teacher. In conclusion, all the scenes stated above are clearly opposite from the teaching strategies of John Keating.
Mr. Keating tries to throw out the old traditional ways of teaching- banking concept- and put in the new critical and mutual labor-engaged pedagogy. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Dead Poets Society Banking Concept Of Education
