Valerie Kalfrin

“What will your verse be?”

School season made me think how movie buffs are in class year-round. (This summer we attended “Monsters University,” right?) So I’ve rounded up a list of my favorite school films with life lessons, such as “Stand and Deliver,” “Wonder Boys,” “Back to School” and “Dead Poets Society.” The last has so many good quotes, but this one from teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) gets me every time:

“Poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life! … of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless … of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?’ Answer: That you are here — that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.… What will your verse be?”