"Carpe Diem" - Seize The Day!

Today being the Victoria Day holiday, just finished watching the Peter Weir film, "Dead Poets Society" with my son. What a compelling movie about an iconoclastic English professor John Keating, played by Academy Award winner Robin Williams! Thoroughly enjoyed it, particularly the way in which Keating so passionately goes about changing his students' lives forever, inspiring them and making their lives so exciting and extraordinary. He encourages them to break the mold and pursue their dreams, much to the chagrin of the staid school management and the enraged parents.

A teacher has the power of inspiring and challenging the students to greater heights, but when one uses unconventional methods to do so, it is not very amusing to the administration, resulting in the teacher getting fired, as in this case. The students, on the other hand, as impressionable as they are, embrace the teacher and his ideology with unmistakable, irrepressible enthusiasm. "Carpe Diem" (Seize the Day) says the teacher, as he challenges his wards to live life to the fullest, resulting in the students sneaking out of their boarding school at night to convene the Dead Poets Society meetings. Each student seizes the day in his own way, with one going on to tragically take his own life in defiance of his father who forbids him to take up acting and wants him to go to medical school instead.

I came away with the feeling of how powerful a teacher's role can be in an impressionable youngster's life. I see my own kid idolizing his teacher in a similar fashion ( he got this movie as a gift a long time ago, but chose to watch it now only because Mr. Wingerak told him in class what a great movie it was!), which only reiterates the fact of what a great responsibility the teacher has in shaping his students and guiding them in the right path. Idealistic and unconventional though a teacher might be, it is imperative that he/she also be a realist and have his/her feet firmly planted on the ground, and not just merely advise the students to wander with their heads in the clouds. Parents want their children to succeed and when they get the right kind of support from the teachers, the children are sure to make a mark in their lives.