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#46 |
Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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#47 |
Curmudgeon
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IMO, one the problem with teaching Shakespeare is that teachers inevitably pick the wrong plays. They pick R&J because it is ostensibly about people who are the same age as the students learning it. The problem with that logic is that the entire world is different. People don't get married as teens much anymore, and the whole warring parents thing is hard to imagine. Add to that a language barrier and a story that qualifies as heavy drama, and it doesn't really encourage people to enjoy Shakespeare.
Now have those same students read Much Ado or one of Shakespeare's other comedies (but not A Midsummer Night's Dream), and you'll usually find that they enjoy it a lot more, because they can relate to the story better. That same story could be set in a high school, and the whole story would basically just work except for the wedding aspect, which is a minor detail. Oh, dear. I think I just got an idea for a book. |
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#48 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Quote:
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#49 |
Grand Sorcerer
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There is also:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_T...Hate_About_You Like most writers, Shakespeare has accessible works and challenging works. Much Ado About Nothing and Taming of the Shrew are among the former and particularly suited to discussing the changed attitudes in western culture over the centuries. A good teacher could easily get students interested in those stories. Macbeth? Hamlet? Not so easy... Starting younger readers with his tragedies is not an optimum approach. ![]() |
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#50 |
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#51 |
Grand Sorcerer
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#52 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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They already do a great job at beating down kids natural inquisitiveness. Historically, public schools' unstated goal has been to produce efficient industrial age workers; educated just well enough to carry out their jobs but not educated enough to question authority, especially state authority. Of course, this leaves them vulnerable to demagogues, cults, and urban legends but states generally find the trade-off acceptable. Killing a love of reading does fit that model since it minimizes the risk the future workers might educate themselves. |
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#53 |
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#54 |
Right, Except When Wrong
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Personally, I think that the best thing that teachers can do is find books that speak to the issues that kids are facing today, preferably in settings that the kids recognize and understand, and using language that is familiar rather than archaic. If the point of literature is to make people think, especially about the so-called "human condition" then we need to ask kids to read books that will engage them not turn them off. We have generations who don't read because all that most of them were taught was material that didn't speak to them (and often taught be those who couldn't really make the text come alive or address current issues and concerns). I would say that much of the best literature these days is probably to be found either in the form of science fiction by authors who push the boundaries of what it means to be human or look into questions of existence and morality and so forth or young adult fiction that, while perhaps not written at the complexity that some might want, does speak to youth and to their fears and concerns. Kids will have plenty of time to read Shakespeare and other classics as they grow up, but they never will broaden their horizons if all that they are taught is to hate reading.
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#55 | |
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Reading for pleasure does not necessarily have the same purpose as reading to learn. If you want to read SF for pleasure (as I did as a teenager, and still do today) that has a different purpose to reading the classics. |
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#56 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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I've always been a little confused by the "Literature class should equal teaching-children-to-love-reading class" notion that so many seem to hold. In my opinion, the love for reading is usually instilled long before children start getting graded on what they get out of "boring" books they don't want to read. And even if they never learn to appreciate the "out of date" classics (though many still do), the experience rarely results in their love of reading being quashed (once that spark is lit). They just get a little frustrated by classwork getting in the way of reading their favorite books. ![]() Last edited by DiapDealer; 05-12-2016 at 10:17 AM. |
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#57 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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And it has, as a prerequisite, a love of reading. If you had teachers that made the classics enjoyable, lucky you. (I had a history teacher you presented history as gossip, focusing on the people and their follies as well as their achievements. A rarity that made history fun.) But way too many students have teachers that treat literature as medicine ("It's good for you!") and make no effort to get students engaged. For them it's a checklist item in the curriculum: read MACBETH, check. Discuss, check. Move on to TALE OF TWO CITIES. The intent isn't to teach literary appreciation at all. It's just another assembly line step. |
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#58 |
Evangelist
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I'd suppose it's because too often the (seemingly intended, but likely merely ignored/not cared about) effect is the opposite.
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#59 |
Grand Sorcerer
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It doesn't have that effect in my experience. In my opinion, those who were turned off to reading by a "boring" literature curriculum were never going to be book lovers in the first place. By the time Shakespeare is shoved in front of them in a classroom setting, they're either readers or they never will be.
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#60 |
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