Inspiration as a Teaching Method in Renaissance Man, Research Paper Example

The film Renaissance Man demonstrates that all people, regardless of background or previous educational experiences, can benefit from student-centred learning and teaching methods which value inspiration, creativity, and independence.  Although former advertising executive Bill Rago has no formal teaching experience, he takes a job instructing low-achieving soldiers in English comprehension and usage at Fort McClane, a U.S. Army training camp.  Neither Rago nor his students are enthusiastic about the course until Rago brings his own creative interests–William Shakespeare–into the curriculum.  Despite resistance at the administrative level, Rago’s non-traditional approach to teaching enables him to inspire and motivate his students and help them successfully complete their course.  Renaissance Man illustrates the need to adapt curriculum, setting, and teaching styles to meet the needs of individual students, especially when working with adult learners who have had difficulty in traditional educational settings.

Bill Rago’s non-traditional teaching style is contrasted throughout Renaissance Man against the authoritarian teaching style of Drill Sergeant Cass.  Rago has no formal teaching experience, although he does have a Master’s degree, and he is upfront with his students from the beginning about his lack of experience.  His blunt manner of speaking, a style he honed in the advertising field, carries over into the classroom, where he often swears and calls his students names.  Indeed, while practising for his first day of class, Rago sums up his own and his students’ situations by stating, “I’ve never taught before and you’ve never thought before.  So good luck to all of us” (Renaissance Man).  Rago also encourages his students to call him by his first name, an approach that angers Drill Sergeant Cass, who believes that such informality breeds disrespect.  Cass thinks that teaching soldiers English Literature is a waste of time that would be better spent focusing on athleticism and rote learning.  The division between these two different teaching styles is illustrated when the students learn that Rago is a civilian teacher and not a member of the military.  They immediately begin to behave much more informally, often leading Rago to have difficulty controlling their outbursts in class.  However, Rago finds it easier to get to know these students, and their unique learning needs, once they have set aside the formal rules and expectations of the military.

In her study of non-traditional students, “Adult Learners in the Classroom: Meeting the Special Needs of Adult Students,” Jovita M. Ross-Gordon emphasizes the benefits of utilizing a learner-centered teaching style.  Although not all of the “squeakers” (Renaissance Man) taught by Rago behave like adults or are indeed over twenty-five (the cut-off age used by Ross-Gordon), their position as soldiers deems that they be treated as adults.  Ross-Gordon’s research has determined that adult learners do best, on both  personal-satisfaction and academic levels, when the emphasis is on “personalized instruction, relating the course to student experience, assessing student needs, and maintaining flexibility for personal development” (Ross-Gordon 47).  Although Rago’s teaching style may be highly unorthodox, he creates a learner-centered environment that seeks to make use of his students’ preexisting strengths and background to better inform their understanding of Shakespeare’s plays.  For example, he ‘translates’ lines from Hamlet into a modern context, but also allows his students to draw their own conclusions and attempt a similar translation on their own, thus building their confidence by emphasizing that they knew more than they thought they did.  One of the primary issues with this group of students is that no one at Fort McClane believes in them.  They are mocked by their peers and dismissed by their other instructors as being “dumb as dogshit” (Renaissance Man).  Thus, Rago must build their self-confidence by demonstrating to them that, with support and guidance, they are capable of understanding the complexities of the English language.

One of the primary messages of Renaissance Man is that students thrive when given the opportunity to develop a strong bond with their teachers. As Robert Crosnoe, et al. point out in “Intergenerational Bonding in School: The Behavioral and Contextual Correlates of Student-Teacher Relationships,” “nonacademic factors such as interpersonal relations shape academic adjustment” (Crosnoe 75).  Although neither Rago nor his students wish to be in the classroom at the film’s outset, their journey through Shakespeare and the sharing of their own life experiences sparks an interest in learning that none of them had expected.  Mutual respect is crucial to this relationship, as demonstrated by the students’ reaction when Rago arrives late to their class stating that he had something “more important” (Renaissance Man) to do; namely, getting ready for a job interview.  “‘I thought we were your job,'” (Renaissance Man), one of his students state before the students walk out of the classroom in protest.  Indeed, their progress in the class only begins to improve once Rago himself makes a firm commitment to support their educational endeavours above his own aims to return to the world of advertising.  To demonstrate his commitment to the class and his students, Rago attempts to scale an obstacle wall, thus aligning himself with both his students and the military as a whole. This is a task that he isn’t able to complete without help, again reinforcing the film’s message of group support.

Rago’s work with this group of alienated students also illustrates the importance of support at the administrative level.  The six-week educational program meant as a “last chance” (Renaissance Man) for these eight students is the pet project of Captain Murdoch.  His belief in his project enables him to support Rago’s unorthodox teaching methods and mediate somewhat  when conflicts arise between Rago and Sergeant Cass.  The Captain recognizes the responsibility that he has towards all of the soldiers at his training camp, even those who have been dismissed by others as being unsalvageable.  Crosnoe et al. write that “schools can be viewed as important aspects of the ecology of human behavior” (Crosnoe 75), and the advocacy role taken by both Rago and Captain Murdoch serves to emphasize the difficulties that teachers can encounter when attempting to revitalize or reorganize curriculum and teaching methods should they not have the full support of their school’s administration.

The contrast between teacher-centred and student-centered learning is demonstrated repeatedly through the class arrangements employed by Cass and Rago.  Sergeant Cass emphasizes discipline and rote learning, and is charged with instructing dozens of students simultaneously.  Bill Rago has only eight students and thus has much more freedom to tailor his curriculum to the interests and needs of his small student population.  The difference between these two styles of learning is that Cass is teaching his students to listen and obey while Rago is teaching his students to think critically.  Rago tells his class that “the choices we make dictate the life we lead” (Renaissance Man), a message that empowers his students by showing them that they are not entirely at the mercy of the authoritarian military.  The fact that they only became proficient in English comprehension once they began working with Rago implies that student-centered learning can be a more effective way of working with learners who have previously had difficult in more traditional learning environments.

Renaissance Man illustrates the positive and negative effects of traditional and non-traditional educational methodologies to illustrate the transformative power that educators can have on their students.  Bill Rago treats his students like individuals and tailors his curriculum so that it becomes applicable to their life experience and interests.  As well, his decision to teach Shakespeare reflects his own love of the playwright, allowing his enthusiasm to become a motivating force for his previously disaffected students.  The conflict between Rago and Sergeant Cass serves to illustrate the impact of different teaching methods while emphasizing the importance of communication and support at the adminstrative level.  Renaissance Man demonstrates that all students, regardless of background or skill-sets, are capable of learning when their instructors provide them with respect, support, and inspiration.  Bill Rago’s experience at Camp McClane is applicable to other teaching environments, my own included, because he demonstrates that no one is unteachable as long as teachers remain open to adapting their curriculum and teaching style to the unique needs of their students.

Works Cited

Crosnoe, Robert, Kirkpatrick-Johnson, Monica, & Glen H. Elder Jr. “Intergenerational Bonding in School: The Behavioral and Contextual Correlates of Student-Teacher Relationships. Sociology of Education, 77 (Jan. 2004): 60-81. Web. 21 Aug. 2011.

Renaissance Man. Dir. Penny Marshall. Perf. Danny Devito, Gregory Hines, James Remar. Walt Disney Video, 2003. DVD.

Ross-Gordon, Jovita M. “Adult Learners in the Classroom: Meeting the Special Needs of Adult Students.” New Directions for Student Services 102 (Summer 2003): 43-52. Web. 21 Aug. 2011.