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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help
Although I agree withh Hamlet that curricula are often chosen (or discarded) for stupid reasons, and that Dream and Errors are good starting points for Shakespeare appreciation -- that start should happen earlier and by High School something that has plot, poetry, and serious issues (like Merchant) should not be beyond comprehension or serious analysis. To deny a sticky (and ultimately unsettleable) issue like anti-Semitism in Shakespeare to people who are otherwise not enjoined from seeing an Arnold Schwarzenegger (for example) movie, constitutes a warped sheltering. We did Merchant in 8th grade and I think my generation was a lot more sheltered from horribleness than subsequent ones. Our class panel discussion about Shakespeare's alleged antisemitism was totally inconclusive (as they all must be), but I don't think it gave any of us "ideas." Let's not sell kids short. That's the kind of thinking that has led well-meaning but wrongheaded librarians an dschool boards to ban Huckleberry Finn, Catcher in the Rye, etc.Posted by JTJ on March 28, 1997 at 12:39:31
In Reply to "Should Merchant of Venice be taught at High School level? " posted by Tricia Scow on March 28, 1997 at 07:48:49
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help