A good teacher shouldn't need to force-feed children Shakespeare
Tim Hands, the incoming Chairman of HMC, was quoted in the Telegraph as complaining that children were being "force-fed" Shakespeare. Really? I thought you force-fed someone when they were deprived of essential nutrients necessary for life, and so likely to die.
I'm afraid I think that Shakespeare is an essential nutrient, and if it's being force-fed firstly I'm in favour of it if it stops children becoming brain-dead, and secondly it's the fault of the Head for not appointing decent staff, not the fault of Shakespeare. Taught well, Shakespeare is the ice cream, not the greens.
I suppose I was force-fed Shakespeare at 14, whilst desperately unhappy as a pupil at a school I hated. It kept me sane. I didn't choose to read Julius Caesar, and I don't suppose I'd have gone near it unless I'd been made to – but it electrified me, not least of all because it taught me for the first time about close friends who – literally, in the case of Brutus – stab you in the back.
It's all part of the idea that children only respond to what is "relevant" or drawn directly out of their own experience. Really? Dinosaurs? Octonauts? Greek Myths? Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings? The joy of literature is that it can transport us to somewhere we've never been, and, if it's taught well, no one does it better than Shakespeare.
It reminds me of the time I sat in the best Chinese restaurant in Manchester and watched a 12-year-old order fish and chips, English style. Isn't a major job of a good school to bring to a child's education things they wouldn't otherwise have known? Apparently not; in the brave new world the restaurant education is only allowed to serve children what they've tasted before.
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