Welton Academy (The school in Dead Poets Society) is almost the polar opposite of Garfield High school (The school in Stand and Deliver). Welton is a very prestigious prep school filled with the rich and upper-class, Garfield is an underfunded high school filled with the underprivileged and destitute. Each school as extreme expectations of their students as well, why this is still opposing views is Welton has extremely high expectations and Garfield as extremely low expectations. At Welton the students are expected to be obedient and focused purely on their chosen (or chosen for them) doctorate. They are treated so strictly and are so strongly pushed away from the arts such as acting or writing they are almost slaves to their academics. Garfield students are expected to achieve nothing but being prepared for the work world pushing them into algebra was seen as too much for them to handle. Here the smart are seen as weak or prey not as superior or gifted. Hell even down to the locations, Garfield being in crowded East L.A. and Welton being on a huge Vermont estate, are completely opposite of each other. It’s strange how students from two completely different worlds can have such a similar problem; the retardation of certain scholarly subjects.
Josh,
ReplyDeleteGreat job, I agree with your descriptions of how different both worlds are. The directors do a great job of portraying how isolating the private academy can be and likewise do an incredible job showing the animalistic nature of Garfield High.