Before stepping into a classroom for the first time as a professor, I had dreams of it going something like Dead Poets Society (1989).  If you are already familiar with this film, please note I am referring more to the first half than the second.  This caveat will become clearer as you go through the synopsis if you do not know the material.  The person responsible for the title, English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams), resorted to various antics that will also be described to varying degrees of detail in order to inspire his students.  Him standing on a desk in a 1959 educational setting is fresh.  To our jaded twenty-first century students, me slamming our textbook on the floor enraged that none of them had done the assigned reading was universally panned.  It will thus probably not shock you to read that I no longer teach.  With such lukewarm feelings, it is little wonder that Christianity is fading.  My hope, then, with this blog and in my prayers, is that enough of you are moved beyond yourselves and towards God.  In Him is the true freedom that is sought after by the ensemble, though His name is sadly not spoken.  All the same, that is why you have The Legionnaire.

For the teenagers at the beginning of Dead Poets Society, they have Welton Preparatory Academy.  It is an all-boys boarding school, and as parents drop off their sons for the new school year, it is evident that they each have high expectations placed on them.  They are reinforced within moments of getting there with their first assembly, when the headmaster, Dr. Gale Nolan (Norman Lloyd) reminds those gathered of the institution’s four principles: tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence.  With these weighing on them, they attend their classes, all of which primarily involve rote memorization of basic academic concepts.  And then they enter John’s classroom.  Instead of giving a lecture on the first day, he takes them down to a hall containing pictures of alumni long passed.  The lesson is that their lives are fleeting, citing one of the opening lines to Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” “. . . gather ye rosebuds while ye may.”  In other words, seize the day.  Already intrigued, the next day instead reciting from their textbooks as so many other faculty members would have them do, John tells them to rip out the introduction.  His unconventional style gets a cadre of his students interested in him, and they find his senior yearbook picture, which they are able to obtain since he also attended Welton.  Next to his image is a mysterious inscription: Dead Poets Society.  When pressed about it, John explains it away as a gathering of like-minded students he had been involved with when he was their age, but that they should not pursue it any further.  It is Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard) who is the most enthusiastic about reforming the group, and his forceful nature compel his friends to follow suit.  Following a few lines in a book of poetry that had been used by the former iteration of the club, they find a cave in the nearby woods and begin meeting.  As they explore the limits of self-expression, enhanced by John’s teaching, they find new paths to follow beyond that which is expected of them.  There is Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), whose parents have a distinguished career set before him, but who falls for Chris Noel (Alexandra Powers), a local girl.  Perhaps the one who finds the most liberation in their clandestine activities is Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen), who eventually insists on being called Nuwanda.  The most time, though, is spend on Neil.  His form of protest is to become an actor.  When his father, Thomas Perry (Kurtwood Smith), learns that he has gotten the role as Puck in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, he comes to school to admonish his son.  In discussing with John about his dad’s reaction, John encourages the young man to talk about how he really feels with Thomas.  With the play’s opening looming, Neil informs John that the father-son conversation took place, and everyone goes to see the first show.  The standing ovation it receives is a triumph for Neil, but he is more nervous about Thomas’ presence in the back of the theater.  As it turns out, they had not talked.  Without saying much to his friends, Neil is ushered out the front door by Thomas and they head home.  Once there, Thomas informs his only child that Neil will not be returning to Welton.  This is because Thomas’ ambition is for Neil to go to Harvard and become a doctor, and acting will supposedly get in the way.  To accomplish this, Neil is now to go to military school.  Not being able to voice a word otherwise, Neil goes to bed.  Yet, after the house is quiet, he quietly goes down to the basement, finds his dad’s revolver, and commits suicide.  News of the tragedy hits Welton hard, especially the members of the society.  However, when the investigation Thomas demands begins, one of their number, Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), not only reveals everything they had been doing, but squarely blames John.  Facing expulsion, every adherent to the group signs a letter of confession stating that it had been John who had encouraged the formation of the society.  The last to affix his signature is Neil’s roommate, the shy Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), who wants to speak out on the injustice of what is happening.  Instead, he meekly puts his name on the paper.  Later that day, with Dr. Nolan taking over John’s class, the now fired teacher must come to collect some personal items.  As he is about to exit, Todd stands upon his desk and begins shouting the title to Walt Whitman’s famous poem, “O Captain!  My Captain!”  It is all the tribute John needs, particularly with Dr. Nolan’s enraged objections.

Given the sad state of our education system, it might seem strange that John would be fired at the end of Dead Poets Society.  While seeing it happen, I felt Todd’s sense of injustice.  Clearly, nothing John did contributed to Neil’s suicide.  It is the burden Neil felt from Thomas, the notion of being entrapped in a looming future over which Neil has no control.  All John did was suggest what Catholicism and modern Western thought would tell you: that we are created to be free individuals.  It might seem incongruent for a practicing Catholic to use such language, but free will is a primary tenet of the Church.  Because God gives it to us, it makes the choice of Faith all the more special, and important.  Not choosing God can lead to eternal punishment without repentance.  It is a struggle felt by all teachers, including myself, and I can add to this my experience as a youth minister.  Particularly with youth ministry, we try to present the Faith in a way that does not come off as too preachy, but is attractive enough to keep the interest of the young ones.  For this, I envy John.  If we had priests like him, Catholicism would have so many men wanting to also become members of clergy we would not be worrying about their numbers.  The closest he comes to sounding like a man of the cloth is when he talks about beauty and how it inspires us to create, such as art and poetry.  When it comes to religious works, there are so many great examples of the combination of the two that they could be offered as a proof of God’s existence.  The same can be said for nature, which is also often referenced.  However, another great John’s maxims is when he talks about the need of constantly seeing the world in a different way.  Again, this might not sound like typical Catholic speak, but I took it as underscoring our daily need of renewal of Faith.  Just because repeating the Rosary or going to daily Mass might become stale feeling, that does not mean it is ineffective.  Nonetheless, to help fight that malaise, it is good to take time to ponder God in everything we do.  It is the spiritual equivalent of standing on a desk.

Seeing things in a unique way is a hallmark of Dead Poets Society.  The goal is to not just make it a mental exercise, but a way of life.  It may seem like our world is individualistic, and in some ways it is.  At the same time, I have seen Catholicism become increasingly counter-cultural, and when society tells you that you should not be so “rigid” in your beliefs, watch this movie.  It is not the happiest tale, but it can help.