During my 4 years of high school, we studied several of Shakespeare’s plays including: A Midsummers Nights Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear.
We also studied a number of famous books including: The Scarlet Letter, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, Great Expectations, The Old Man And The Sea, Siddhartha, Metamorphosis, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Death Of A Salesman, and many others.
I love to read.
At the time though, I wasn’t fond of our reading assignments. Our programs transformed the enjoyable experience of immersing myself into a book into a programmatic routine of dissecting prose, diagramming sentence structure and memorizing minute details for quizzes.
In other words, my teachers used these literary works as textbooks to create assignments, quizzes and book reports. They used them just like math books.
I remember how we would be assigned a chapter to read and told not to read ahead. Then we’d spend several days in class reviewing the chapter. Sometimes we’d read the chapter aloud in class – in high school!
I always ignored the “don’t read ahead” instructions. If a book was interesting, I devoured it in a few nights. Then I’d reread the “assigned” chapter before class so it was fresh in my mind.
Some of the books I enjoyed. Many I didn’t. But as I compiled this list today, I realize that my assignments gave me a broad exposure to the authors and literary classics that are part of America’s culture.
On my own, I read thousands of other books. Some were classics, some were trash. In adulthood, I’ve even gone back to reread some of the classics to see how my perspective and understanding have changed.
I hated reading Shakespeare. I didn’t realize why until years later.
It’s because Shakespeare wrote plays! Plays were not meant to be be read. They were meant to be acted out, on stage and watched by an audience.
I also learned recently that Shakespeare wrote for the underclass. His plays were meant to be baudy, edgy, and appealing to the uneducated classes – not the upper crust elite.
Go figure. We were never taught that in high school.
Our studies of Shakespeare were entirely based on reading.
Occasionally after we finished reading a play, doing weeks of assignments and having a final exam, our teacher would reward us by rolling in an old reel-to-reel projector and we’d watch a film of the play. This was often eye opening as it revealed details, nuances and scenarios that seemed incoherent in text. It’s too bad we never were able to see these beforehand.
Once, for West Side Story, we split into teams and acted out a short scene.
But not once, did we actually see an entire play the way it was intended to be watched.
I would never recommend reading a script, instead of watching a movie. Nor would I read the lyrics or study the score instead of listening to a song. Doing that is missing the point.
Ironically, my school did put on an annual school play, which I always went to see. I remember seeing these high school plays: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum, Camelot and Guys & Dolls.
I watched a few movies of plays too including King Lear, Romeo & Juliet, West Side Story and Jesus Christ Superstar. Although a filmed play was better than reading it, I prefer either watching a real play in person or watching a real movie on film.
So what’s my point?
I do think being exposed to the classics and to cultural literature is important and helpful. It provides insight, it expands your cultural literacy, it gives you something to talk to others about and it may even open a window to new ideas, authors, and stories.
We could do better though, by rethinking the way we do this in school. Take the kids to a theater instead.