How are Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating similar? How are they similar?

As I talked about in the previous blog post, Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating are in completely different environments. Different time period, different kind of school, different kinds of students, and they teach different subjects. However, the teaching styles employed by a teacher are not limited by the kind of school he is teaching at or the subject being taught. The way in which Mr. Escalante teaches his 1980s public high school class of potential drop-outs calculus is similar to the way Mr. Keating teaches his 1950s class of privileged white males English. Both teachers work hard to make their students want to participate in and learn from the class, often using unorthodox methods from Escalante's publicly mocking his students to Keating's games of soccer with his English class. Both are so successful in motivating their students that the students are willing to continue working at the subjects outside of class - in the forms of summer class sessions and after school study sessions from Escalante's calculus class and the reformation of the Dead Poets Society from some of Mr. Keating's English students. The two teachers prove that the qualities which make a good teacher do not at all depend on the subject or the students being taught.