Is it a cop out to simultaneously think that teaching Shakespeare to high school students is both brainless and a no-brainer? I switch between the two. Shakespeare was a genius. He was a wordsmith beyond compare. So he deserves to be taught. And yet the way it is taught is so universally awful that it almost guarantees students will come away hating him. I did. It took a long time and many experiences actually seeing The Bard perform to cure me. I'm good now. Finally.I can sit in the audience of Romeo and Juliet and not be taken back to Year 11 English and the horror of reading the text out loud line by line around the classroom and discussing what we thought it might mean. There was always an essay about what Shakespeare had to bring to modern audiences. No matter what Year 11 me wrote the honest answer would be nothing if experienced in that form. Which is why seeing the young QUT acting students perform R&J makes me happy. This is how the text is meant to be experienced - all hot blooded and in the flesh. Like this we can talk about cultural taboos, racism, young love, lust, religion, bigotry, suicide or whatever you like. You can talk about a man ahead of his time and not a dead language. If you must teach it, do it well . Please. Year 11 me implores you.
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