should Shakespeare.s plays be part of a good education?

[Zebra]

i think it should.

ok!

 

[Dekster]

I think they can be but are not critical to it so not sure how to answer the poll. In the plus side, most kids just Spark Note that stuff to figure out what the hell is even going on.

 

[lg325]

Macbeth was and still is a favorite story for me since I was in junior high school. Shakes spear and literature in general can be positive parts of child development.

 

[rosends]

The problem is with how it is taught, and the fallacy that EVERY student needs to learn Shakespeare.

 

[rampart]

I think they can be but are not critical to it so not sure how to answer the poll. In the plus side, most kids just Spark Note that stuff to figure out what the hell is even going on.

most kids get out of their education exactly what they put into it.;

tragically. or is it comically, most kids don't even watch the movies.;

Zebra i can't imagine a n english speaker considering themselves literate without some passing knowledge of hamlet or julius caesar. we did romeo and juliet in high school anbd also mjidsummer nights dream.

bartletts famous quotations has more quotes from shakespeare than any other, only the king james bible is close.

 

[rampart]

The problem is with how it is taught, and the fallacy that EVERY student needs to learn Shakespeare.

shakespeare has been taught, pretty much the same, for 500 years.

i have never seen a stage production of julius caesar. but we watched the movie as a class (on one of those old projectors and a pulldown screen)

 

[Zebra]

5 x Yes …. already ….

 

[rosends]

shakespeare has been taught, pretty much the same, for 500 years.

i have never seen a stage production of julius caesar. but we watched the movie as a class (on one of those old projectors and a pulldown screen)

Shakespeare has been taught in a large variety of ways, many of them predicated on the wrong premises. Watching the play or the movie is not especially effective and becoming less so as each year passes.

 

[rampart]

Shakespeare has been taught in a large variety of ways, many of them predicated on the wrong premises. Watching the play or the movie is not especially effective and becoming less so as each year passes.

one years high school play is sure to be romeo and juliet.

i remember reading the parts in class "wherefore art thou romeo." or hamlet;'s soliloquy .

is the middle english language a problem?

 

[rosends]

one years high school play is sure to be romeo and juliet.

i remember reading the parts in class "wherefore art thou romeo." or hamlet;'s soliloquy .

is the middle english language a problem?

Romeo and Juliet should not be taught in anything lower than college (and it is a horrible play). Language (the plays were not written in middle English) and comprehension are a big obstacle but there are also questions of relevance and cultural literacy as the culture evolves.

 

[Zebra]

one years high school play is sure to be romeo and juliet.

i remember reading the parts in class "wherefore art thou romeo." or hamlet;'s soliloquy .

is the middle english language a problem?

The Bard wrote early modern English.
Chaucer wrote Middle English.

 

[rampart]

The Bard wrote early modern English.
Chaucer wrote Middle English.

after further review. the cut off appears to be 1500, though i';ll bet there was a generation or 2 for the transition. to reach oiut into the west midlands. the "early modern" distinction may be new in the 1/2 century since eng lit was a subject. (or maybe the language in shakespeare is so difficult for high schoolers (another great reason to study shakespeare -= vocabulary.

 

[Zebra]

after further review. the cut off appears to be 1500, though i';ll bet there was a generation or 2 for the transition. to reach oiut into the west midlands. the "early modern" distinction may be new in the 1/2 century since eng lit was a subject. (or maybe the language in shakespeare is so difficult for high schoolers (another great reason to study shakespeare -= vocabulary.

yes…. there will have been a transition.

languages do not change overnight …

 

[Dekster]

most kids get out of their education exactly what they put into it.;

tragically. or is it comically, most kids don't even watch the movies.;

Zebra i can't imagine a n english speaker considering themselves literate without some passing knowledge of hamlet or julius caesar. we did romeo and juliet in high school anbd also mjidsummer nights dream.

bartletts famous quotations has more quotes from shakespeare than any other, only the king james bible is close.

Shakespeare's play use language that is so difficult for people to trudge through that sometimes they miss the bigger thrust of the stories. I really have no problem with people looking for cheats when it comes to his plays. His sonnets are a little more user friendly in that they are not so laborious to get through.

 

[Rawley]

Shakespeare's play use language that is so difficult for people to trudge through that sometimes they miss the bigger thrust of the stories. I really have no problem with people looking for cheats when it comes to his plays. His sonnets are a little more user friendly in that they are not so laborious to get through.

I would argue that is why they should be taught - because it makes you think.

 

[TheParser]

i think it should.

(1) Yes, Shakespeare should be introduced starting in kindergarten classes.

(2) BUT only if the teacher knows how to teach the plays in an interesting manner.

(3) If students have to wait until secondary classes and are taught by a boring teacher, most students will recoil at the mention of Shakespeare for the rest of their lives.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Everyone needs a good understanding of Shakespear's plays or they won't understand Star Trek!

 

[Dekster]

I would argue that is why they should be taught - because it makes you think.

You are not thinking when you are taking as long to read a page of a play as it would take you to read a chapter in a modern novel. There are like 30 characters in Richard III including ones with overlapping royal titles to add to the confusion before you even get to the litany of one and done characters. It is busy work, not learning, to be forced to read that thing.

 

[Zebra]

Everyone needs a good understanding of Shakespear's plays or they won't understand Star Trek!

true!

 

[Rawley]

You are not thinking when you are taking as long to read a page of a play as it would take you to read a chapter in a modern novel. There are like 30 characters in Richard III including ones with overlapping royal titles to add to the confusion before you even get to the litany of one and done characters. It is busy work, not learning, to be forced to read that thing.

Sure. One could say "You were sure pretty" or you could say

Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath,
Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:
Thou art not conquer’d; beauty’s ensign yet
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,
And death’s pale flag is not advancèd there.
Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe
That unsubstantial Death is amorous;
And that the lean abhorrèd monster keeps
Thee here in dark to be his paramour?