For a few months last year, I moonlighted as an Uber driver on the weekends. Most of the conversations I had involved exchanging banal pleasantries, but occasionally I would strike up a good conversation with one of my riders. Upon learning that a passenger was an English major at a local university, we went back and forth exchanging favorite books and authors until the topic of Shakespeare came up. I mentioned my excitement about an upcoming production of As You Like It, which it turned out the young English student was also attending. However, her reaction was much different; she dreaded the thought of seeing a Shakespeare play, saying that she and her fellow students didn't get it. Despite choosing to study literature, this student couldn't help asking: Why do we read Shakespeare? As a high school English teacher, I imagine many students ask themselves the same question as they struggle through Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and Hamlet. Surely, these plays present a challenge to students, with archaic language, a cast of characters to keep track of, and allusions to Ovid that fly over the heads of their teachers. Yet, Shakespeare's writing teems with complex characters and themes that illuminate our experiences and inform us about how to live our lives. Think about the character of Jacques in As You Like It, overcome by grief and sadness, unable to join in the celebration of new love at the end of the play, confined to wallow in his own misery. What an example for teenagers to learn about the perils of self-pity and dwelling on negativity! When teachers think about reading Shakespeare with our students, we need to put as much emphasis on showing our students why Shakespeare matters and what his plays have to teach us as we do on analyzing the text or understanding the intricacy of iambic pentameter. Our students will be asking the question Why Shakespeare?, and we should be able to counter their skepticism with examples of how Shakespeare can relate to their lives. |
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January 2017
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