SHAKSPER 2002: Re: Results of the Experiment

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@shaksper.net)
Date: 05/23/02 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1393  Wednesday, 23 May 2002

[1]     From:   Sam Small <samsmall@globalnet.co.uk>
        Date:   Wednesday, 10 Apr 2002 02:39:43 +0100
        Subj:   Re: SHK 13.1353 Re: Results of the Experiment

[2]     From:   Howard Toshack <words@loxinfo.co.th>
        Date:   Thursday, 23 May 2002 07:04:43 +0700
        Subj:   Results of the Experiment Again


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Sam Small <samsmall@globalnet.co.uk>
Date:           Wednesday, 10 Apr 2002 02:39:43 +0100
Subject: 13.1353 Re: Results of the Experiment
Comment:        Re: SHK 13.1353 Re: Results of the Experiment

My statement regarding the teaching of Shakespeare to children was a
general one - and I still hold it to be true.  Larry Weiss, Brian
Willis, Kristine Batey and Marcia Eppich-Harris all took my remark to be
a personal affront.  None was intended.  That you had such wonderful
parents and teachers was a gift.  That you were so literarily precocious
was, I am sure, noticed by your friends.  If we think of the teaching of
Shakespeare as a problem then teachers will always be frustrated -
except with children of the most gifted homes.  I'm not suggesting a ban
on the Bard, but to selectively expose children and teenagers to the
language as plays, films or occasional readings.  If it is part of an
irrefutable syllabus I would guess that most of the children would
resent it.  Some of the population, and me included, would love the
stuff from the start.  But we touch on a widely held tenet in education
lore that states that the ideal is that all children score top marks in
all subjects.  I simply don't agree.  It is not necessary that all
children love Shakespeare.  That they do not is not the fault of
teachers but probably human biology.

I also have to take exception to Professor David Lindley who finds my
position depressing.  He attests that curricula should be based on worth
and not the instant gratification of 14 year olds.  But worth must be
defined for all to see.  He suggests the worthy 4 times table which, I
am sure, could be easily justified to a teenage class or younger.  They
too would give you their own sincere reasons for learning it.  However,
with 400 year old poetry-drama centring on middle-aged dilemmas, I would
think you would have a harder time.  Would the pursuit of happiness be
badly obstructed by a poor grasp of Two Gentlemen of Verona?  I think
not.

SAM SMALL
http://www.passioninpieces.co.uk

[2]-------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Howard Toshack <words@loxinfo.co.th>
Date:           Thursday, 23 May 2002 07:04:43 +0700
Subject:        Results of the Experiment Again

[Editor’s Note: Yesterday’s attempt to get Howard Toshack’s post correct
also was unsuccessful. There is a long explanation, but the short one is
that some mailers truncate long paragraphs after a certain number of
characters. However, I now think we have it right. Below is what Howard
has been trying to say for several days. –Hardy]

One answer to the problem of engaging student interest has always been
to make connections. That's easier with some plays than with others, of
course. Sometimes the connections make themselves: here are extracts
from an account of how a class of 17-year-olds reacted to the opening
scene of 'Othello':

"The class are already held by elements in the story. They have focussed
readily on Iago's nastiness and Roderigo's foolishness, and have been
quick to identify the examples of prejudice and racism. There have been
some sideways glances: they are themselves from a mixture of
backgrounds, and some eyebrows have been raised at Roderigo's
'thick-lips' and at the way Iago uses Othello's African-ness against
him. They don't immediately see, though, that Shakespeare's interest in
the racist elements in the scene would have been startlingly new to
those of his audience who picked up on it. (Shakespeare made more of the
matter than the writer from whom he borrowed the tale; and the idea of a
black man as a 'good' man would have been unusual in the literature of
the time). This has led to a discussion on how our response to a piece
of literature is partly determined by our own situation. I've given them
sight of a typical examination essay question (with some slight
modifications it could be an International Baccalaureate, AP or A Level
question):

'Plays take us into worlds different from our own, but must have
something to say about issues of importance in the world to which we,
the audience, will return.'

Show how issues relevant to today's world have been raised in plays you
have studied.

"There are even more intimate links with the class's own lives. Some of
the girls have already seen connections with their own experiences
(several of them are from traditional Asian backgrounds). We've talked
about whether there is satire in Shakespeare's representation of
Brabantio as a possessive parent whose values are predominantly
commercial and who may have lost his daughter by trying too hard to keep
her. The class will soon be studying Arthur Miller's 'Death of a
Salesman'. That play attacks the American Dream and tells the story of
how a father alienates his elder son by trying to force a way of life on
him. Is 'Othello' in some small way an attack on 'The Venetian Dream'?
If it begins as such, the issue is soon swallowed up by larger ones."

Making - or seeing - connections is one answer, but perhaps not the
best. Facing students at the end of things with an exam that matters is
another (but that's a whole new discussion).

It’s the experience of being in that world ‘different from our own’
which will stay with students – if you can get them there.

(Extracts are from ‘Othello: A Study Commentary’, www.litworks.com.)

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

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