‘Poets’ Model Deems College Impractical

PITTSBURGH —  The professor whose teaching inspired the film “Dead Poets Society” says he is not really interested in poetry, a subject he doesn’t believe is practical for today’s college students.

“I don’t even think college is practical, so I don’t think it makes any difference,” said Samuel F. Pickering Jr., an English professor at the University of Connecticut.

Tom Schulman, a student Pickering taught 25 years ago, wrote the screenplay for “Dead Poets Society” and based fictional prep school teacher John Keating on Pickering.

In the film, actor Robin Williams as Keating motivates his students with an off-the-wall teaching style.

Pickering, addressing Pittsburgh-area teachers this week at a poetry forum, has admitted to some of Keating’s tactics, including lecturing from a desktop and from outside a window.

“I quote a lot of poetry--if I can remember it,” Pickering, 48, said. “Maybe it teaches them to think and to see things and hear things in a different way.”

Pickering, an essayist, told the teachers that he finds inspiration for writing in ordinary events. Eating breakfast with his three young children gives him more to write about than hours of heavy contemplation, he said.