A few weeks ago, the English II students were practicing giving speeches. One student extended a particular invitation to me to hear her speech on why we shouldn't devote so much time to studying Shakespeare in high school. She made some good points: More time should be made to explore other authors and diverse views. Specifically mentioned were: The Twentieth Wife Civil Disobedience The style in which he writes has been replicated by many authors since, so it is no longer unique. The plots are derivative and quite boring in some ways. Shakespeare's themes are rightly called timeless. Authors before and since have explored these themes as well (arguably better at times) As I said, all good points and I don't disagree with the arguments. However, I offer the following reasons for continued study of works by William Shakespeare. Cultural Literacy Yes, we could probably achieve many of the same educational goals by analyzing other works of literature. But we'd miss out o
Blog started at my students' urging. Many different things will be talked about here.