![]() That's Donald Pleasance - pre-John Carpenter era of course - in all that makeup. The acting in this episode is simply excellent. It's one of the best parts of being a teacher - the ability to make a difference in so many, many lives. These things are like a fountain of youth that revitalize a teacher and make him ready for a new day. The minor comment of praise made by a student, or the letter from and old student who has gone on to bigger things that you hang on your wall. One of the hardest things for a teacher to do is to expend all this energy on a group of young minds, only to feel that nothing is getting through.Īnd then there are small, brief moments when you realize that you have done something helpful, something enriching in someone's life. It often seems like students have other interests that have nothing to do with the truths you are trying to reveal to them. ![]() There are many times in a teacher's life that he or she doubts that what they are professing is making a difference in student's lives. ![]() This simple story has great meaning for me as a young professor embarking on my own career. He is no longer "ashamed to die," and his students have made the world a better place because of what Fowler has done for 51 years in the classroom. Fowler, brought to tears, realizes that he has in fact made a difference. One by one, they tell him that at the moment of their deaths, they did indeed remember the lessons Fowler taught them about bravery, courage, duty, and the indomitable human spirit. Investigating, he comes to an empty classroom that suddenly fills with apparitions of former students who have died. Just then he hears the class bell ringing. After taking out a gun and wandering the campus, he comes to a statue of Horace Mann, which bears the inscription "Be Ashamed to Die Until You Have Won Some Victory for Humanity." Fowler is ashamed, feeling that his 51 years have not meant anything at all, and his teachings have been ignored by countless students. He returns to his home and contemplates suicide. Fowler, for whom teaching is not really a career but a way of life, is crushed. Fowler is brought before the Dean of the college, who tells him that he is being forced into retirement to make way for a younger professor. Fowler is the arts and literature professor at a prestigious college, and he wonders aloud in class if his students are appreciative of the material he is giving them, though he seems to love them all very much. Some of the students in his current class are grandsons of former students. The episode centers on Professor Ellis Fowler, a "bookish guide to the young" who has been teaching students for 51 years. If that's the case, then "The Changing of the Guard" represents a light in this darkness. "The Twilight Zone" has a reputation for being mostly a dark, even occult series. "The Changing of the Guard" (Alternate Take)
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