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Mr. Keating had a very interesting way of teaching. He used his firing passion for the English language together with his extremely enthusiastic and energetic personality to teach learners much more than what the curriculum prescribed. He makes use of humor and interesting facts to keep learners intrigued. According to Mr Keating, the idea of education is to learn students to think for themselves and to think freely.

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TEACHING PHILOSOPHIES USED
1. Individuality
In his classroom, Mr. Keating made sure that the learners understand the saying "carpe diem". He used this quote to support his teaching philosophy which is to "seize the day". He encouraged his learners to do the most and to live in the moment. He aimed to learn them to never lose hope and live curiously by showing them that poetry is not just schoolwork, but rather a way of living. By doing this so passionately, he got the learners to love poetry, so much that they followed his footsteps into starting their own poetry club which was called the Dead Poets Society.

2. Different perspective
To quote Mr Keating: "Constantly look at things in a different way." In order to understand poetry better, he wanted them to look at everything out of a different perspective.

3.Question norms of society
Because of his questioning of the norms of society as well as his different perspective of life, Mr Keating did not necessarily do what was expected by the curriculum, other teachers or parents.

Example from the film:
He encouraged Neil Perry to do what he loves, which is acting. When Neil's father did not approve of his acting, he told Neil to communicate his feelings and love for acting with his father.  He encouraged Todd Anderson to get out of his comfort zone and "seize the moment" by reciting poetry in front of the classroom. Knox Oversreet kisses a girl while having "carpe diem" in his mind. To quote Mr Keating: "Constantly look at things in a different way." In order to understand poetry better, he wanted them to look at everything out of a different perspective.
Throughout the film, Mr. Keating repeatedly show his learners to look at something differently. He even got them to take turns to stand on his desk in the classroom to look at the classroom from a different point of view or from a different perspective. For one of his poetry lessons, he took the students outside and each one had to kick a soccer ball while reciting poetry. This helped them to enjoy the lesson while learning something that might have been boring when sitting in the classroom. When he first meets the learners, he walks in the class while the students are sitting in their desks and ready to learn. To their surprise, he walks directly to the back of the classroom and exits, asking them to join him. The normal routine or procedure for the teacher would have been to greet the class and tell them to open their books, but he asked them to exit the classroom and teach them something interesting in a total different way. By doing this, he immediately had all their attention and they were very interested on what he was going to say next. To prove a point, he instructed learners to rip out a few pages from their poetry textbooks to teach them that real literacy is not important and that it is all about what the poem makes you feel.

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Ms. Gruwell went into her position as teacher very obliviously. She did not know what type of students she will teach, but she believed in them and helped them to overcome their views of themselves and those around them. She was passionate about teaching and learned the students to work hard and to believe in themselves.

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TEACHING PHILOSOPHIES USED

Mrs Gruwell believed in each individual learner and never judged any of them. She truly had respect for these learners and she valued and promoted diversity. She stayed optimistic and was an excellent example of a role model for these learners . Even though the learners, at one stage, told her that they hate her, she never gave up. Her teaching reflects the philosophy of progressivism, as she transforms the traumatic lives and relationships of the students into an opportunity for learn to take place. She changes their lives by believing in them and never giving up on them. Ms. Gruwell worked two other jobs to have money to buy books for the students, as the school did not want to grant these learners any resources because they’re convinced that the students would vandalize the books. Ms. Gruwell really had to motivate learners to work, as they believed that they were incapable of having a successful future or career.

Examples from the film:
Ms Gruwell set curriculum work aside and found a way to incorporate their emotional attitudes and academy at the same time.  She used their real-life problems and helped the learners to deal with this trauma by reading, writing and speaking. For one lesson, she used music that the learners like and started teaching them about the rhyme words in the music. She bought each student a diary in which they could write anything that they wanted to. This not only helped learners to work through the traumatic events that they have experienced, but it helped them to write and spell as well. By doing this, the students started trusting Ms Gruwell. As previously mentioned, she worked two other jobs in order to have money to buy the students new books and she chose books that the students could relate with, such as The Diary of Anne Frank. The students loved this book so much that they started tolerating each other in the classroom, which concluded in a learning environment. They also begged Ms Gruwell to raise money so that they can meet Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank from the Nazis. When other teachers did not want to help her with recourses, she asked them: "Why should they waste their time showing up, when they know were wasting our time teaching them." This is yet another sign of her passion and determination to fight for her learners. Ms. Gruwell put the specific curriculum aside when she realized that more learners have been shot at than how many know the word "holocaust."  She also took the learners on a field trip, where they met people that survived the holocaust. The students learned so much from these survivors and it concluded them looking at life from a total different perception and with changed attitudes.

Eventually, the students transform from learners who did not work in the classroom at all to learners who got very excited when Ms. Gruwell got them new reading books. Ms. Gruwell organizes something to drink so that each learner can celebrate themselves; she called it “Toast for change”.

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Relevance of philosophies in South Africa

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Relevance of philosophies in South Africa

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1. Mr Keating's philosophies

Mr Keating's way of teaching and motivating is applicable to different students in different environments all over the world. Many South African learners have a negative mindset towards schoolwork and it would help if a teacher, such as Mr Keating, could encourage them and make them love the subject. He inspires learners to learn by thinking for themselves, something that would definitely benefit South African learners. Many South African students come from unprivileged homes or communities and Mr Keating's lesson on "seize the day" might just be what they needed in order to get the motivation to work hard to escape their circumstances.

2. Ms. Gruwell
Ms. Gruwell changed so many learners' lives in the film Freedom writers. South Africa  has a multi-cultural popularity which is why Ms. Gruwell's philosophy would be very relevant. South Africa also has diverse schools with learners that all come from different backgrounds, which makes her philosophy very applicable. She  motivated learners to accept each other by working through their problems and learning at the same time. There are also many South African schools with few to none resources and her approach would therefore be beneficial in our education system.