What I Learned About Learning in "Dead Poets Society"
The film, Dead Poets Society is perpetuating two competing theories about how to educate; memorization and obedience versus students thinking for themselves. This is a representation of past education consisting of teacher-centred learning, in comparison to the present and future education that praises student-centred learning. The former is traditional education where teachers lecture information to be memorized by students, and the latter is constructivist education where learners construct their own understanding through the tools taught to them by the teachers. The “Welton Way” is the traditional education, where older, authoritative figures lecture information they deem important to the students. The students are to internalize the teacher’s knowledge without challenge, question, or free thinking. Subjects such as mathematics, science, or anything that leads to jobs as medicine, law, and engineering, are given more importance than the language arts. In this way, edu...