Select one of the questions below and answer it. When you have completed your answers, print it off and hand it in. The reflection rubric will be used to grade this assignment.
QUESTIONS:
1. There is a scene whereby the English teacher, Mr. Keating, asks the students to read their original poems. When he asks Todd Anderson to read his, Todd says, “I didn’t do it. I didn’t write a poem”. Keating responds with, “Mr. Anderson thinks everything inside him is worthless and embarrassing. Isn’t that right, Todd? That’s your worst fear. I think you’re wrong. I think you have something inside that’s worth a great deal.” What is Todd’s self esteem like? What is Anderson so afraid of? Was Todd using one of the evasions of self-esteem? Which one? Could 1 John 4:18, which says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love”, provide a solution to Todd’s problem? Was Keating using love to help Todd?
2. There is a scene when Keating has his students marching in the courtyard. During that scene he tells them, “Conformity. The difficulty in maintaining your own beliefs in the face of others…Now we all have a great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular. Even though the herd may go ‘ That’s bad.’ Robert Frost said, ‘ Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.’” Is Mr. Keating really referring to character or is he referring to personality? Explain with what you learned about character and personality in class. Could John Keating be saying the same thing as it says in Romans 12:2? It says in Romans, Do not be conformed to this world,* but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.