Free Thinkers

While watching Dead Poets Society in class today, I had the sudden realization: few students today are free thinkers. Yeah, this movie is not completely realistic, but few movies are. The teacher's encouragement though, to open their minds, is one I think students do not receive in today's schools. Although things may be different than the 1950s, students should still learn to have an open mind. Students just aren't taught that today. Math, English, science, and even humanities' classes, we're simply learning how to pass tests and whatnot. Even though we do think in English, it's more about how to pass the AP test and not really about appreciating literature. We try, but there's really not enough time to do both. And since appreciation can't exactly be measured, it's an impractical thing to teach.