As a Gen X parent of Gen Z teens and young adults, I’m used to cringing at things from 80s and 90s movies that haven’t aged well. However, a beloved film from my youth that I thought they’d love, “Dead Poets Society,” sparked some unexpectedly negative responses in my kids, shining a spotlight on generational differences I didn’t even know existed.

I probably watched “Dead Poets Society” a dozen or more times as a teen and young adult, always finding it aesthetically beautiful, tragically sad, and profoundly inspiring. That film was one of the reasons I decided to become an English teacher, inspired as I was by Robin Williams’ portrayal of the passionately unconventional English teacher, John Keating.

Banger line from Dead Poets Society: “Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” pic.twitter.com/rv4KtXaZhV— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) April 12, 2024

Banger line from Dead Poets Society: “Medicine, law, business, engineering, these are all noble pursuits, and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” pic.twitter.com/rv4KtXaZhV— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) April 12, 2024

The way Mr. Keating shared his love of beauty and poetry with a class of high school boys at a stuffy prep school, encouraging them to “seize the day” and “suck all the marrow out of life,” hit me right in my idealistic youthful heart. And when those boys stood up on their desks for him at the end of the film, defying the headmaster who held their........

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