Keep Shakespeare in the Curriculum (Even If You Hate Him)

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Back to school

With school starting up again, I’ve been thinking a lot about issues in teaching and learning. My thoughts keep returning to Dana Dusbiber, the high school teacher from Sacramento who suggested back in June that we should remove Shakespeare from the English curriculum. Her opinion, published in the Washington Post, naturally riled the Shakespeare-loving community, which circled its wagons in defense of the Bard. Sadly, many of the responses focused on attacking Dusbiber personally, calling her (among other things) ignorant, illiterate, and racist. I don’t know Dusbiber or her students, but what I see in her opinion isn’t an ignorant, illiterate racist but a veteran teacher searching for the best ways to educate her students. She shows passion for her work and for the well-being of her students.

She is, however, wrong.

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(Not) Romeo and Juliet: Revisited

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Muddy Reflection

In my last post, I (kind of) reviewed the latest film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Carlo Carlei. Since then, the film—and the play on which it is based—has been haunting me. I simply can’t pull my mind away from Romeo and Juliet for long. I awoke this morning, in fact, with the faint memory of performing in and/or directing a production in my dreams.

I am sad to report that upon further review, the call on the field stands: the Carlei/Fellowes Romeo and Juliet remains an exercise in condescension. Usually, if I’m still pondering a work long after seeing it, it means it has either profoundly impacted my life or inspired me to reconsider my initial reaction. Part of me was hoping time would help me see more redeeming qualities in the film, but if that’s to be the case, one week has not been long enough.

I have, however, been ruminating on the film’s usefulness. In doing so, I have come to the tentative conclusion that I am glad the film was made.

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What are teachers for?

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What am I doing?

I’ve been a teacher for years. I started peer tutoring in high school, majored in Secondary Education in undergrad, earned my MLitt concentration in teaching, and have been teaching in one way or another since graduation. Heck, even my directing style tends to fall on the teaching side of the theatre process; I’m generally more concerned with coaching the actors than I am with the technical/visual elements (no amount of “pretty” can make up for unclear, uninspired performances). But in all my experience, and through all my training, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who could come up with a satisfactory definition of what a teacher’s job is.

We’re supposed to transmit knowledge—but knowledge of what (not to mention how)?

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