Monday, February 25, 2008

Why teach Shakespeare?

As you might already know, I teach English at the Year 10 - 12 level and as a part of that, teach Shakespeare.

I love Shakespeare, I really love Shakespeare - his plays are the stuff of dreams, madness, love, romance, hate, good, evil - actually, pretty much any human trait you can think of has been modelled in one of Shakey Bill's plays.

In one of my classes today (we're studying Macbeth) a student asked why we study Shakespeare, and not one of the more modern "classics" like Vantage Point. I answered that it is because of the themes and issues which Shakespeare address, timeless and to the point. But it got me thinking and I had a look around the wonderful webiverse and found 'Why Teach Shakespeare' at Englicious. I haven't read it all, but it looks like it might be shaping up to something beautiful.

If you like using the English language in anything approaching a decent manner, then it is well worth a look.

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