The first day of class dawned bright and clear. The junior-class boys dashed in
and out of the bathroom, dressing in record time. “Those seventh graders look
like they’re going to make in their pants, they’re so nervous,” Neil laughed as he
splashed his face with cold water.
“I feel the same way,” Todd admitted.
“Don’t worry, the first day is always rough,” Neil said. “But we’ll get through.
Somehow we always do.” The boys finished dressing and raced to the chemistry
building. “Shouldn’t have slept so late and missed breakfast,” Neil said. “My
stomach’s growling.”
“Mine too,” Todd said as they slid into the chem lab. Knox, Charlie, Cameron,
and Meeks were already in the class along with some other juniors. In the front
of the room a balding, bespectacled teacher handed out huge textbooks.
“In addition to the assignments in the text,” he said sternly, “you will each
pick three lab experiments from the project list and report on one every five
weeks. The first twenty problems at the end of Chapter One are due tomorrow.”
Charlie Dalton’s eyes popped as he stared at the text and listened to the
teacher. He shot a disbelieving glance at Knox Overstreet, and both boys shook
their heads in dismay.
Todd was the only one among them who didn’t seem fazed by either the book
or the things the teacher was saying. The teacher’s voice droned on, but the boys
stopped listening somewhere around the words “the first twenty problems.”
Finally, the bell rang, and almost everyone from chemistry moved into Mr.
McAllister’s classroom.
McAllister, probably the only Latin teacher in the history of contemporary
education with a Scottish brogue, wasted no time in getting into the subject. He
handed out the books and launched in. “We’ll begin by declining nouns,” he
said. “Agricola, agricolae, agricolae, agricolam, agricola …” McAllister walked
around the room, repeating the Latin words as the boys struggled to keep up with
him.After forty minutes of recitation, McAllister stopped and stood, facing the
class. “You will be tested on those nouns tomorrow, gentlemen. You have your
work cut out for you.” He turned and faced the blackboard as a collective groan
rippled across the room. Before McAllister could begin round two, however,
they were saved by the bell.
“That guy is nuts! I’ll never learn all that by tomorrow,” Charlie moaned.
“Don’t worry,” Meeks said. “I’ll teach you guys the system. We’ll study
together tonight. Come on, we’re late for math.”
Mathematical charts decorated the walls of Dr. Hager’s classroom, and books
were already waiting for them at their desks.
“Your study of trigonometry requires absolute precision,” Dr. Hager
instructed. “Anyone failing to turn in a homework assignment will be penalized
one point off his final grade. Let me urge you now not to test me on this point.
Who would like to begin by defining cosine?”
Richard Cameron stood and recited, “A cosine is the sine of the complement
of an angle or arc. If we define an angle A, then …”
Dr. Hager bombarded the class with mathematical questions the entire period.
Hands flew into the air, students stood up and sat down like robots, reeling off
answers, staunchly taking harsh reprimands for mistakes.
The bell rang, but not soon enough. “Thank God,” moaned Todd as he piled
up his books. “I don’t think I could have taken another minute of that.”
“You’ll get used to old Hager,” Meeks consoled him. “Once you get the pace
of it, you’ll do fine.”
“I’m already six paces behind,” Todd groaned as the boys walked together to
their next class. He didn’t say another word as they dragged themselves into the
English room, dropped their books on their desks, and fell into the seats.
The new English teacher, wearing a shirt and tie but no jacket, sat at the front
of the room, staring out the window. The boys settled down and waited, grateful
for a moment to relax and shed some of the pressure of the last few hours.
Keating continued to stare out the window. The boys started to shuffle
uncomfortably.
Finally Keating stood, picked up a yardstick, and started strolling up and
down the aisles. He stopped and stared into the face of one of the boys. “Don’t
be embarrassed,” he said kindly to the blushing boy.
He continued to move around the room, looking intently at the boys as he
walked. “Uh-huh,” he said aloud, looking at Todd Anderson. “Uh-huh,” he
repeated, moving toward Neil Perry.
“Ha!” He slapped his free hand with the yardstick and strode forcefully to the
front of the room. “Nimble young minds!” Keating shouted, looking around at
the class and gesturing with the yardstick.
He jumped dramatically onto his desk and turned to face the class. “‘O
Captain! My Captain!’” he recited energetically, then looked around the room.
“Who knows where that’s from? Anybody? No?” He looked piercingly at the
silent boys. No one raised a hand. “It was written, my young scholars,” he said
patiently, “by a poet named Walt Whitman about Abraham Lincoln. In this class
you may refer to me as either Mr. Keating or ‘O Captain! My Captain!’”
He jumped down from the desk and resumed strolling the aisles, speaking as
he moved. “So that I become the source of as few rumors as possible, let me tell
you that, yes, I was a student at this institution many moons ago, and no, at that
time I did not possess this charismatic personality.
“However, should you choose to emulate my manner, it can only help your
grade. Pick up your textbooks from the back, gentlemen, and let’s retire to the
Honor Room.”
Using the yardstick as a pointer, Keating headed to the door and walked out.
The students sat, silent, not sure what to do.
“We’d better go with him,” Neil said, leading the class to the back of the
room. They each picked up a text, gathered their books, and proceeded to the
oak-paneled Welton Honor Room, where they had last waited to see Dean
Nolan.
Keating walked around the room as the boys straggled in. He studied the
walls, which were lined with class pictures dating back to the 1800s. Trophies of
every description filled shelves and glass cases.
Sensing that everyone was seated, Keating turned toward the class.
“Mister”—Keating looked down at his roster—“Pitts,” he said. “An unfortunate
name. Stand up, Mister Pitts.” Pitts stood. “Open your text, Pitts, to page 542
and read for us the first stanza of the poem,” Keating instructed.
Pitts leafed through his book. “‘To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time’?” he
asked.
“That’s the one,” Keating said, as the boys in the class chuckled out loud.
“Yes, sir,” Pitts said. He cleared his throat.
“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a flying:
And this same flower that smiles today,Tomorrow will be dying.”
He stopped. “‘Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,’” Keating repeated. “The
Latin term for that sentiment is Carpe Diem. Does anyone know what that
means?”
“Carpe Diem,” Meeks, the Latin scholar, said. “Seize the day.”
“Very good, Mr....?”
“Meeks.”
“Seize the day,” Keating repeated. “Why does the poet write these lines?”
“Because he’s in a hurry?” one student called out as the others snickered.
“No, No, No! It’s because we’re food for worms, lads!” Keating shouted.
“Because we’re only going to experience a limited number of springs, summers,
and falls.
“One day, hard as it is to believe, each and every one of us is going to stop
breathing, turn cold, and die!” He paused dramatically. “Stand up,” he urged the
students, “and peruse the faces of the boys who attended this school sixty or
seventy years ago. Don’t be timid; go look at them.”
The boys got up and walked to the class pictures lining the honor-room walls.
They looked at faces of young men, staring out at them from the past.
“They’re not that different than any of you, are they? Hope in their eyes, just
like yours. They believe themselves destined for wonderful things, just like
many of you. Well, where are those smiles now, boys? What of the hope?”
The boys stared at the photos, their faces sober and reflective. Keating walked
swiftly around the room, pointing from photo to photo.
“Did most of them not wait until it was too late before making their lives into
even one iota of what they were capable? In chasing the almighty deity of
success, did they not squander their boyhood dreams? Most of those gentlemen
are fertilizing daffodils now! However, if you get very close, boys, you can hear
them whisper. Go ahead,” he urged, “lean in. Go on. Hear it? Can you?” The
boys were quiet, some of them leaned hesitantly toward the photographs. “Carpe
Diem,” Keating whispered loudly. “Seize the day. Make your lives
extraordinary.”
Todd, Neil, Knox, Charlie, Cameron, Meeks, Pitts, and the other boys all
stared into the pictures on the walls, lost in thoughts that were rudely interrupted
by the bell.
“Weird,” Pitts said as he gathered up his books.
“But different,” Neil said thoughtfully.“Spooky,” Knox added, shivering slightly, as he headed out of the room.
“You think he’ll test us on that stuff?” Cameron asked, looking confused.
“Oh, come on, Cameron,” Charlie laughed, “don’t you get anything?”
