Samuel F. Pickering (born September 30, 1941) is a professor of English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.[1] His unconventional teaching style was one of the inspirations for the character of Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams in the film Dead Poets Society.[2] Pickering specializes in the familiar essay, children's literature, nature writers, and 18th and 19th century English literature.[3] In addition to teaching, he has published many collections of non-fiction personal essays as well as over 200 articles.
Contents |
Samuel Pickering was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, where he attended Montgomery Bell Academy. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A.) from the University of the South and a second B.A. from St Catharine's College, Cambridge. He briefly returned to his alma mater, Montgomery Bell, to teach, a year before attending graduate school, receiving a Master of Arts degree (M.A.) at St Catharine. He attained a second M.A. and a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) from Princeton University. In addition, he has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Oglethorpe University.
One of Pickering's students at Montgomery Bell Academy, Tom Schulman, later wrote the script for the film Dead Poets Society, basing the pedagogy of Robin Williams' character very loosely on Pickering's eccentric style. Pickering has eschewed publicity raised by the film and has since regarded the unorthodoxy of his classroom behavior as more goalless than that depicted in Dead Poets Society, in which unorthodoxy is employed deliberately as a way to preach the values of non-conformity and carpe diem. Instead, Pickering has commented that "I did such things not so much to awaken students as entertain myself."[4] Pickering has often considered his teaching style purely purposeless and impulsive, and he criticizes those who have subsequently asked him about his philosophy on education, responding that people, regarding such large social questions, have trouble with "the realization that mostly it's all meaningless. I don't know why people want answers."[5]
Pickering was the assistant professor at Dartmouth College from 1970–1978, associate professor at the University of Connecticut from 1978-1984, and has been a professor at the University of Connecticut since 1984. A Fulbright recipient, Pickering has lectured in classrooms in Jordan and Syria, and has held research posts at the University of Western Australia as well as the University of Edinburgh.
| “ | I tie all kinds of things together because I like to drift. That’s the way life is. Some folks don’t like that. Often, I just write about—I mean, Scott Sanders came here—he’s a nice man—he gave a talk on one of his books. He talked about all the tools he could use in the books. So, I wrote an essay called “Tool Less” because I can’t use any tools. [laughs] So I wrote about that and I proved that the people who couldn’t use tools were more flexible. They were very nice people . People who used tools thought that things could be made and fashioned to last. People who didn’t use tools knew that nothing lasts so they were not zealots of any kind. He thought I was a complete savage and a fascist at that. [laughs] So, that was the occasion for that. - Samuel Pickering, Jr.[3] | ” |
Pickering is married and has three children. He divides his time between Storrs and his summer home in Nova Scotia.