NOTES COLUMN Argument Essay: Should We Still Care about Shakespeare?

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Argument Essay: Should We Still Care about Shakespeare? You will read four texts about whether or not Shakespeare should still be studied in High School.

1 Argument Essay: Should We Still Care about Shakespeare? You will read four texts about whether or not Shakespeare should still be studied in High School. Then, you will write an argumentative essay in which you take and defend your position on whether or not Shakespeare should still be required curriculum for high school students. Complete the following steps as you plan and compose your essay: 1. Read the texts about studying Shakespeare. As you read the sources, take notes on important facts and details. You may want to refer to your notes while planning and writing your essay. 2. Plan, write, and revise your essay. You will have 90 minutes to complete your reading, planning, and writing. Source 1: Online Journal Article Why do we still care about SHAKESPEARE? By Cindy Tumiel Four hundred years have passed since William Shakespeare penned his last play. Yet his prose, plots and characters are as alive today as they were when the plays were originally staged during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Shakespearean works are required reading for high school English students and a course or two for college students who study writing or literature. The plays have been performed in almost every language, on stage and screen and at popular festivals around the world. Even in prisons, teachers find that Shakespeare offers contemporary connections that open pathways to learning for some of society s most marginalized. For two of UTSA s eminent literary scholars, the bard of Avon s enduring appeal is an enduring topic as well. Alan Craven and Mark Bayer are frequently asked to explain Shakespeare s staying power in the lore of literature. What is it about a long-dead poet and playwright that makes him such an important element of contemporary culture? The answer is simple for Craven, a professor emeritus at UTSA who taught his first Shakespeare course back in He is the greatest dramatist, the greatest poet and the greatest prose writer in the history of the language, said Craven, who teaches undergraduate courses in Shakespeare and has seen all of his plays performed at least once. He has a presence like Lincoln or Washington in American history. The language is rich, the characters are complex and many of his basic themes love, treachery, honor, bravery and political intrigue still resonate today, said Craven. Mark Bayer, an associate professor and chair of the Department of English at UTSA, agreed. There are two poles of debate about Shakespeare s longevity, said Bayer. One is

2 intrinsic to the plays universal appeal. But also, one could plausibly argue Shakespeare has been manufactured into what he is today through popular culture Academia has helped fuel Shakespeare s mystique by thoroughly incorporating his works into the standard curriculum for high school and college students, Bayer noted. High school students typically read one play each year. At least one class in Shakespeare is required for college English majors, which is one of the most popular academic programs on the UTSA campus, said Bayer. Outside of the classroom, there are movies, ballets, live theater and Shakespearean festivals. Even popular music and television commercials have been built around notable Shakespearean characters like Romeo and Juliet, Bayer added. A certain amount of Shakespeare s notoriety is predicated on hype, Bayer said. Nonetheless, Shakespeare manages to shape the experience of many who have never even seen one of his plays, Craven said. Pretty much everyone knows the story of Romeo and Juliet, and most people can recite at least a couple lines from Hamlet s To be or not to be soliloquy. A lot of people are affected by Shakespeare even though they don t think that they know a lot about him, Craven said. Even in prisons, inmates who pursue educational opportunities regularly find lessons about Shakespeare and his plays. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, a play about the conspiracy to assassinate the Roman emperor, is one of the works regularly used to introduce inmates to literature and learning, Craven said. The plot and themes involve murder, political treachery and justice. These are all things that people in prisons would relate to and be interested in, he added. A Man of His Times Still, Shakespeare most likely did not envision his works as fodder for high school English classes or inmates in distant centuries. He was a man of his times, writing for his contemporaries on topics that were the hot-button issues of his day. Bayer teaches students to examine the historical context of the plays and the people they were written for. For example, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British audiences, and indeed, the author himself, did not study nor understand human psychology as it is understood today. Yet the psychologically complex character of Hamlet made for a successful play because of its connections with ideas and events that were relevant to the people of Shakespeare s time, Bayer said. They (early modern audiences) would enjoy the ghosts, the political intrigue, the murder plots, the nations at war. These were things that were on people s minds at that time, he said. Humans still experience love, loss, betrayal, war, humor and tragedy, which gives Shakespeare a foothold in modern times, Craven said. Still, the playwright wrote for live audiences, and Craven encourages students and other Shakespeare lovers to get out of the books and go see the plays in a theater. His plays were written to be performed. He conceived in them what an audience needs to know, Craven said. If we come at his plays from books and classrooms, we are doing it the wrong way.

3 16 He laughed, recalling a recent experience of seeing Romeo and Juliet live in a theater that seemed to be filled with teenage girls. They sighed, moaned, giggled and cried as one throughout the production, something the professor delighted in That is exactly the way Shakespeare intended for his plays to be experienced, Craven said. Shakespeare wanted audiences to react. He wanted people to cheer and boo at his characters. These physical connections to Shakespeare are not as strong in San Antonio as in other areas of the United States, where summer months bring Shakespearean festivals or where there may even be local theater groups that focus on Shakespeare, said Craven. Of course, England is the real heart of Shakespearean love and lore. No vacation to that country can be considered complete without a visit to Shakespeare s hometown of Stratford-Upon-Avon. A tourist in London may be able to find three or four theaters simultaneously presenting different Shakespearean works, Craven noted. Despite the limited opportunity to see performances in San Antonio, UTSA s courses on Shakespeare remain popular with students, who gain appreciation for the lilting language and talent of an author from another era. The language is so dense, so rich, the first couple plays they read are difficult. Not because the language is archaic, but because it is semantically dense. You have to read the lines over and over, said Bayer. But like anything else, time and effort bring an understanding, he said. Students go into it because it is a requirement, but I do think they end up enjoying it. Perhaps some of those students will end up like Craven, who finds that Shakespeare forms a lens through which he sees life. I find myself quoting Shakespeare all the time, he said. There is almost always a quote for almost anything one wants to say. This article was published in the Fall 2013 issue of Ovations: Research, Teaching, Creativity, Outreach, an online journal published by the University of Texas at San Antonio. Source 2: Letter Skipping Shakespeare? Yes, English majors can often bypass the Bard By Dana Dusbiber June 13, I am a high school English teacher. I am not supposed to dislike Shakespeare. But I do. And not only do I dislike Shakespeare because of my own personal disinterest in reading stories written in an early form of the English language that I cannot always easily navigate, but also because there is a WORLD of really exciting literature out there that better speaks to the needs of my very ethnically-diverse and wonderfully curious modernday students. I do not believe that I am cheating my students because we do not read Shakespeare. I do not believe that a long-dead, British guy is the only writer who can teach my students about the human condition. I do not believe that not viewing Romeo and Juliet or any

4 other modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play will make my students less able to go out into the world and understand language or human behavior. Mostly, I do not believe I should do something in the classroom just because it has always been done that way I am sad that so many of my colleagues teach a canon that some white people decided upon so long ago and do it without question. I am sad that we don t believe enough in ourselves as professionals to challenge the way that it has always been done. I am sad that we don t reach beyond our own often narrow beliefs about how young people become literate to incorporate new research on how teenagers learn, and a belief that our students should be excited about what they read and that may often mean that we need to find the time to let them choose their own literature. I was an English major. I am a voracious reader. I have enjoyed reading some of the classics. And while I appreciate that many people enjoy re-reading texts that they have read multiple times, I enjoy reading a wide range of literature written by a wide range of ethnically-diverse writers who tell stories about the human experience as it is experienced today. Shakespeare lived in a pretty small world. It might now be appropriate for us to acknowledge him as chronicler of life as he saw it 450 years ago and leave it at that. What I worry about is that as long as we continue to cling to ONE (white) MAN S view of life as he lived it so long ago, we (perhaps unwittingly) promote the notion that other cultural perspectives are less important. In the 25 years that I have been a secondary teacher, I have heard countless times, from respected teachers (mostly white), that they will ALWAYS teach Shakespeare, because our students need Shakespeare and his teachings on the human condition. So I ask, why not teach the oral tradition out of Africa, which includes an equally relevant commentary on human behavior? Why not teach translations of early writings or oral storytelling from Latin America or Southeast Asia other parts of the world? Many, many of our students come from these languages and traditions. Why do our students not deserve to study these other literatures with equal time and value? And if time is the issue in our classrooms, perhaps we no longer have the time to study the Western canon that so many of us know and hold dear. Here then, is my argument: If we only teach students of color, as I have been fortunate to do my entire career, then it is far past the time for us to dispense with our Eurocentric presentation of the literary world. Conversely, if we only teach white students, it is our imperative duty to open them up to a world of diversity through literature that they may never encounter anywhere else in their lives. I admit that this proposal, that we leave Shakespeare out of the English curriculum entirely, will offend many. But if now isn t the time to break some school rules and think about how to bring literature of color to our student s lives, when will that time be? Let s let Shakespeare rest in peace, and start a new discussion about middle and high school right-of-passage reading and literature study. Dana Dusbiber, a veteran teacher at Luther Burbank High School. Luther Burbank is the largest inner-city school in Sacramento, California, with all students coming from lowincome homes and a majority of them minorities. Her letter was published on the Washington Post website on June 13, 2015.

5 Source 3: Infographic

6 Source 4: Opinion Column published by the Folder Shakespeare Library Why We Shouldn t Study Shakespeare August 6, 2015 By Folger Education By Mari O Meara Like most teachers, when a Shakespearean unit is announced, I am greeted by many loud groans and a few students voicing the usual (whiny) complaints- It s so boring! I don t understand it ; Do we have to? Tuning out students complaints is a well-developed skill of all teachers. The one complaint I always find satisfaction in responding to is Do we have to? To my students surprise and premature glee, I tell my students, no, you don t have to study Shakespeare ; however, like all curriculum, the reasons to NOT study Shakespeare in an English curriculum must be carefully researched, supported, and presented. Thus, I challenge my students to take on the task of proving me (and the school board) why we shouldn t study Shakespeare in a secondary English classroom. Thinking they are getting out of learning, the students embrace the challenge, and thus, immerse themselves in formal and intense Shakespearean scholarship. Before they begin, I make it clear the only argument that garners no merit is to argue that Shakespeare is boring. Students offer subjects ranging from racism, sexual content, misogyny, religious issues, plagiarism, to the difficulty of Shakespearean language, the importance of a global curriculum, and even the authorship debate as reasons to not study Shakespeare all topics that pique their interests and motivate them to want to learn more. I have yet to find students come to the conclusion they shouldn t study Shakespeare. In fact, their overwhelming response is that studying Shakespeare is a valuable and necessary experience. Even though they eventually embrace the study of Shakespeare, they are students, and they will continue to complain; it s just that their complaining shifts to why can t we study more Shakespeare? Mari O Meara is a member of the Folger Shakespeare Library s National Teacher Corps. She teaches 12th grade English and Film Studies at Eden Prairie High School in Eden Prairie, MN (a suburb of Minneapolis). She can be contacted at mmomeara@msn.com.

Teacher: Why it is ridiculous not to teach Shakespeare in school Reported By Valerie Strauss June 13, 2015

Name: Period: ARTICLE 2 Teacher: Why it is ridiculous not to teach Shakespeare in school Reported By Valerie Strauss June 13, 2015 Portrait of Shakespeare. ( Folger Shakespeare Library) I ve been inundated