a word from our sponsors
See the new shakespeare.com. This feature, while it still provides useful information, is no longer maintained.
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help
I am continually blown away by the scope and granduer of the wisdom this man known as Shakespeare
displayed in his tremendously diverse body of work. I don't imagine any one person on the face of this
earth ( except maybe Jesus ) had a better understanding of human nature and the way of the world. How
could ONE person know SO much about SO many different aspects of the human condition? It boggles MY
mind, that's for sure. How did ONE person have time to learn SO much about EVERYTHING ( and to all
corners of the earth, it seems ) AND have time to write the quantity and quality of plays he wrote?
I teach Shakespeare occasionally to alternative high school students-- kids who have been there, done that.
Kids who hate the whole concept of the school system but know they need to graduate. Kids who come to
my 8:30 drama class more often than not stoned. The only way to hook their interest in something as daunting
and foreign to their paradigm as William Shakespeare is to bring their experience to the plays and the plays to their
experience ( the first response to this question explains this concept very eloquently and in a non-pretentious manner
that is very effective when dealing with 90's teens.
Something I love to do with every class I teach ( whether Shakespeare or not ) is to pick apart the "To be or not to
be" speech from Hamlet. Shakespeare captured the very essense of the suicidal person's quandry in that speech.
That whole "for who would bear...?" list is completely inclusive of all the things today's hopeless individual has to be
hopeless about. When I break each of these things down for my students they're like "Whoa.... I get it." And then
they open up about their own feelings on those subjects. It's astounding. Just the "pangs of despised love" part gets
them going. How many bouts of deep despondency, depression, and even attempts at suicide originate from heartbreak?
Teenagers know that story. I sure do.
I really love Shakespeare! For many reasons, but mostly for his insight. It inspires me, and it helps me to see how
human beings are essentially the same no matter how many decades pass.... We have a common thread that connects
us all over time, over continents, and over cultures... No matter how far away from ourselves and each other we get,
we can find our way back-- that thread is a permanent fixture, and if we follow it back to the source as Hansel and Gretel
followed the bread crumbs, we can find the beauty of life again.
To teach Shakespeare is to teach life. How unfortunate it is that so many teachers simply teach verse and meter.....
Posted by Lara on April 06, 1997 at 15:21:47
In Reply to "re: Schools" posted by Lillith on April 05, 1997 at 08:34:59
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help