now you have most of Hellton's teachers telling you to lock in AND the whole Perry household, isn't it great?
anyways thank you so much to everyone who liked/rebloged/used any of these memes, it made me smile knowing that it made some people laugh (and hopefully lock in)
Okay so first maturing is noticing JUST HOW MUCH the welton administration and Nolan were constantly stroking their egos-
Like the science teacher for example, the way you can see how he gets a kick out of assigning them that much homework on the first day,
But not Dr. Hager...
Oh noooooo.
He quite literally WARNS THEM about the homework/coursework, even tells them to not test him on the matter.
And that paired with him seeming like a capable teacher to me honestly makes for such a better show of character.
Now, as we know he is the school matron, or something of the like. And he is shown telling the students off and warning them about curfew/bell times a lot. But whenever he does that, he never approaches it threateningly, or shows any reaction when he is disobeyed. He always has this calm, sorta inquisitive look on his face making him seem genuinely curious as to why his instructions aren’t being followed, and patient with the outcome also.
He is really only ever shown doing annoying things twice, once -before the extracurricular activities get assigned- on the stairs to the headmasters office where he gives Meeks and Pitts demerits, and another time when he makes them eat spaghetti with their dominant hand again.
Now in both of these situations, there is a key difference between any other ones we’ve seen him in. It’s a public place surrounded by other members of the faculty. In a way, if HE doesn’t tell them off for something, someone much stricter, meaner and of higher status and lesser patience will. This was very much the case for the spaghetti and meatballs scene, as we know Nolan himself likes to roam the dining hall and get students in trouble. Imagine what would happen if it was Nolan who caught them and not Doctor Hager. Even when he replies to Knox’s reasoning with a condescending comment, it wasn’t so much condescending as it was again, a warning, a genuinely good piece of advice and just logical reasoning. Hager’s main goal really is discouragement, he tries to discourage the students from behaving in ways that would get them in constant/immediate trouble, and also to keep his reputation up in the public eye of the school too. That’s why he gave Meeks and Pitts demerits; he did it so quickly after they just spoke a little while the WHOLE STUDENT POPULATION was also speaking;;;;; he knows those two pick up merits like breadcrumbs so obviously they wouldn’t miss them, and he’s setting the bar for the other students as a warning that if the high achieving students get in trouble easily, see how bad it will be for you. And it proves effective too, Jonas is seen brushing up and standing tall and being quiet after witnessing the incident. He did it so casually in that instance too, as if it didn’t really have anything to do with what the students actually did, he was set on teaching that lesson in the first place.
Then we have sides to him that are just downright kind. See, he is not only the matron but also the dorm father, it is quite literally his responsibility to take care of the students, that’s why he has Spencer’s medication, (and via relation all of the other students’ too) and sleeps in the same corridor and tells them their curfews. And the students, for some reason, seem very comfortable with disobeying him, -such as when he was yelling at the poets to get to class- mocking him, -when he asked the bagpiper to cut out the racket and he tooted the clarinet at him- literally bulsh*tting him, -when Meeks and Pitts straight up said to his face that their radio was a radar science project- and sneaking out in the middle of the night while he’s on watch. And just generally acting safe around him, and honestly for good reason too, he’s polite to the students and calls them things like “gentlemen” and such and even drives them around places if they need to go somewhere, he truly does his job as student caretaker well.
And as to why he didn’t catch them when they were sneaking out even though it was pretty clear he knew something was up, his approach to things is usually to only intervene when there are immediate/likely costs at stake. Since the boys had snuck away and had already made it down the stairs it was a bit out of his hands. I think either since he would’ve known about the original dead poets society or just sensed that this was another cherished thing for the students that he should leave alone, he decided it was best not to interfere.
And honestly I really like him for all that.
And how he compares to the other teachers well, we only saw him, the science teacher, (F#CK THAT GUY) Mr Keating, and Mr McAllister. Now McAllister’s situation is a bit entirely different since he’s just a nice and goofy guy teaching in that hellhole of a school, the way he tells the students off for talking in study sessions shows he also doesn’t care if the students misbehave a little, but the main difference between him and Dr Hager is that he finds it amusing and talks to others/the students with an air of comedy mixed in with however much hostility he offers, whereas Dr Hager is much more logic based. If he was in that situation, he’d most likely tell them off only once and never bring it up again, but continue to supervise them intently.
I don’t know. To me he just seems like a reasonable guy, and even though he doesn’t rebel like Mr Keating (or micro-rebel like McAllister) to me he never seemed to be on the same side as the administration. :)
