How Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating are different/similar

When it comes to Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating, the similarities mostly outweigh the differences. Both teachers use unique teaching styles to capture the attention of their students. For example, in one of his first lessons Mr. Keating has one student recite a passage from a book called “understanding poetry”. He fools the students into thinking they should be paying close attention by intensely drawing graphs and models on the blackboard while the passage is being read. He then tells the students that he strongly disagrees with everything the book said and instructed his students to rip up the pages. When the students hesitated, He exclaimed “It’s not the bible, you’re not going to go to hell for this! Rip it out!” Similarly, Mr. Escalante caught his students off guard when we showed up to class in the apron and chef’s hat. By cutting up the apple to explain fractions, he got a rise out of his students and grasped their attention.

Both Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating taught their students on a more personal level. During one scene in Dead Poets Society, Mr. Keating was giving a lesson. He got down on one knee in the middle of the classroom and told the students to “huddle up”. This made everyone in the class feel included. Similarly, Mr. Escalante constantly walked around his classroom asking each individual students questions. He made sure everyone was included and nobody got left behind.

The most significant similarity to me was how inspiring both teachers were. Mr. Escalante sparked a fire inside of his un-motivated students by pushing them to the fullest extent. He expressed the importance of education, and most importantly, he never stopped believing in his students. Mr. Keating was inspiring the way that he had such a strong passion for poetry, and therefore would stop at nothing for his students to share that passion. He used visual examples to convey his insights, such as the scene where he jumped up on the desk and said “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.” In both movies, the teachers manage to fully engage the students in learning. I believe that is something only great teachers can accomplish.