Comments on: It’s Boring, Very Boring

By: Carnival of Education #163: Spring Break 2008 Edition | So You Want To Teach?

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:09:27 +0000

[...] Guberek presents It’s Boring, Very Boring posted at The Bard [...]

By: JJ Ross, Ed.D.

JJ Ross, Ed.D. — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:32:33 +0000

So glad to find folks thinking and talking this way about learning Shakespeare.

Public education was my passion and profession but since retiring, I’ve learned more out of school about learning than I ever did in school. Mainly, I’ve learned that School and Education aren’t synonyms, much less equivalents. Whether called school, education or by any other name, I’ve learned that entertainment, engagement, play and power of story, are such stuff as dreams are made on.

My radically-unschooled daughter is now in our local community college honors program, choosing only teachers and courses that inspire and excite her, thereby creating her own ideal academic experience. Last week she was so excited to hear that a new honors Shakespeare seminar will be offered this fall, that she stayed poised online to register at the stroke of midnight as fall classes opened, to guarantee she’d get cast, I mean get a spot.

Now that’s entertainment! — um, education. Art?

By: thelif

thelif — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:09:23 +0000

Working – or rather “playing” -on it.

We’re particularly fortunate in where we perform our summer festival. Agecroft Hall stood in England during Shakespeare’s time, and was brought over to Richmond in the 1920’s. It is now an ELizabethan museum on the interior, and perform out in the outer courtyard surrounded by gigantic magnolias.
We know that Shakespeare’s group did tour when the plague or the censors shut down the London theatres, and travelled to manor homes. SO, we like to think maybe they visited this very house.
A great place to spend your summer.

By: Gedaly

Gedaly — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:42:24 +0000

Quite right! There is no substitute for seeing the plays done well. The best way to learn the words is for students to get up and do it, like you said.

It’s unfortunate that most teachers in schools don’t teach it this way. Most schools require Shakespeare in their English classes where they study literature that is meant to be read to yourself silently. Obviously Shakespeare doesn’t entirely fit into that category of material.

I also checked out the Richmond website link, sounds like you’re doing some great things! Keep it up!

By: thelif

thelif — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:45:21 +0000

Hello there.
I come from the Shakespeare performance world and am Director of Education for Richmond Shakespeare in Richmond, VA.
I just got back from doing one of our typical workshops in a middle school. At the outset, I go for the elephant in the room, asking “what is most people’s attitude when they go to a class knowing that they are going to study Shakespeare?” And , of course, the answer is mostly that it’s going to be boring, impossible to understand, old, etc, etc.
My response- of course, it is – when it’s READ from a book. Shakespeare is not “the book” or words on the page; it’s meant to be action on a stage. (Hence the huge numbers of people that flocked to his plays during his lifetime, and many of those were illiterate.) Even Shakespeare didn’t care about “the book”, he didn’t set about printing them. Some got copied individually, but probably at the instigation of the shareholders who wanted to make a few more pennies. The big book of all his plays (Complete Works) didn’t even get published until after he died!
I’ll be honest- I’ve been doing this for more than 10 years and there are still plays I haven’t read; it’s just very hard. My answer for students is to get up on their feet and read it out loud; be the characters, and many times the words will kind of work themselves out in context.
But the best alternatice is to GO SEE IT!

By: Tom Humes

Tom Humes — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:19:33 +0000

I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.

Tom Humes