We've done a fair bit of Shakespeare in school. I'm in the Scottish equivalent of 9th Grade and we've studied Macbeth three times and The Merchant of Venice once. Being an ardent reader I've been quite disappointed that we haven't had a broader scope of Shakespeare titles. My teacher also likes to skip, in her words, "boring or unnecessary scenes". We also watch the film, normally the Roman Polanski version but I support this as Shakespeare titles are
plays after all and it is the closest we're going to get without going to the theater (and very rarely are there Shakespeare productions in Aberdeen as far as I'm aware)
Having said that however I do feel that reading the original Shakespearean text isn't necessary, it's quite clear my classmates do not understand it and to be perfectly honest I find it quite difficult to understand without a dictionary next to me and even then it is far from an enjoyable read. I find the Sparknotes 'No Fear Shakespeare' series good for this purpose but do think they unnecessarily simplify things. For example "To be or not to be? That is the question" becomes "The question is: is it better to be alive or dead?"
