In the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’, the high school teachers teach students only for the purpose of going to better universities. However, John Keating's way of education, which is pretty different from established education, changes students’ ideas.
   The movie shows a bad effect of the cramming education in the USA in the 1950s. The cramming education is education which puts emphasis on memorization. It is theoretical education that only injects identical knowledge and doesn’t consider individuality or creativity. Nell, who is a hero of the movie, moves as scheduled in his day to day life. He studies the same content every day and then falls asleep. Students in the 1950’s thought of this life as a presumed thing. Students from days when elitism was overflowing studied not what they wanted but what parents wished and couldn’t do what they wanted due to the school’s strict tradition and rules. They were deprived of their freedom and didn’t know the identities of their lives. They didn’t live for themselves but for their educational background and future job.
   This situation is like Korea’s present education. Students don’t know what they want and are taught formulaic education just concentrating on college entrance exams. They also have no time to enjoy the present lives in university because they are restricted by studying for finding a nice job. When an individual lives actively with free will, the meaning of life can be completed, but it is hard to be accomplished in a society that overflows with cramming education.
   ‘Carpe diem!’ is a famous phrase of an ancient Roman poet. This aphorism was cited by Mr. Keating in the movie ‘Dead Poets Society’ in order to tell students the importance of what they want to do now. Have courage to seize the day. I hope these words make your dreams come true.
 

By Kyeong So-hyeon | sh34@cbnu.ac.kr

By Kim Ji-won | jw34@cbnu.ac.kr