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Personally, I have nothing against Shakespeare. Yes, a 10th grader reading it in the original form will struggle with uncommon vocabulary and structure. They will be challenged to read over and over to interpret. There is educational value in that but many of them will fail. Many of them will walk away reinforced in their belief that they "Hate reading."
THAT is where I have a problem.
I think that teachers who trot out the movies and the graphic novels are trying to incite fiery interest from a stone cold pile of tinder. Maybe it will work, maybe not. I suspect they'd be much better off simply starting with a subject material that would be far more likely to appeal to the common teen. I suspect they would be for more likely to succeed if our kids were actually given some sort of choice in what they will read. I'm really not of the opinion that there are all that many documents out there that anybody should HAVE to read. With my children, I'm much more concerned that they just read.
As for those who enjoy Shakespeare - go for it.
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