Rewatching some scenes from the film Dead Poets Society recently, I remembered the time of my life when I first came across this poem by Walt Whitman, and a time when I was first introduced to the meaning of poetry itself.

That film came out in 1989 and I probably saw it for the first time in the early 1990s, at exactly the same time—give or take a few months—as I was being initiated into the world of poetry and literature by my great English teacher, and I’m happy to say, still my great friend, Richie Ball in St Patrick’s Classical School in a small town called Navan in County Meath in Ireland.

John Keating, the English teacher played by Robin Williams in that film, was a different type of teacher than Richie Ball, but both shared a deep essence of what it is to teach. Because teaching is about so much more than transferring information. In fact, to me, the information might be the least important ingredient in teaching. Great teaching is a holistic experience. A great teacher creates and cultivates a space in which teaching can happen. This, to me, is why so much online education fails. Because so much online education is just information, and online courses in most cases fail to create the space in which great teaching can really take place.

To get back to the poem by Walt Whitman, this too is relevant, I think. Because what is great teaching only an example of great leadership? Whitman’s poem is a tribute to the great American president Abraham Lincoln after his assassination, but in many ways it is a tribute to great leadership, and to great leaders, who must know that a large part of what they give to the world through their teaching and through their leadership will only be really felt after their time on earth has passed.

You can read the poem here.

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