Friday, November 9, 2012

All Schools Include The Study Of Shakespeare For Students

By Marcy Becker


Most schools throughout the United States have a curriculum for school children that must be followed in order to provide them with a well rounded education. This is true for most subjects, including math, English, and science. Each grade level has their own requirements and goals which are required to be met by the end of the school year, but there is always the need for Shakespeare for students.

For reading, writing, and English classes, there are usually a set of books or stories which are required to be read. Often these pieces are classics of literature and are meant to apply to certain age levels based on the subject matter in the text. Basing readings on age and maturity level, along with the issues that age group is facing, is often how these required texts are assigned.

Many of the books or short stories are assigned and discussed in the classroom, however, some may be provided in between grade levels during the summer for independent reading. There are some books which are seen as absolutely essential reading and are assigned to students of the same age or grade level across the country. These are often classic pieces of literature which have been written by extremely influential authors.

Probably the most well known and assigned readings are those written by William Shakespeare. His works are the ultimate in classic literature and have proven to be favorites of readers even centuries after their original creation. His plays and stories are as interesting and applicable today as they were when he wrote them, which is why they are required for student from junior high school all the way up through college.

Just a few of his most well known and reviewed pieces are Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, King Lear, and Macbeth. These are, however, just a slight few of the many works the write created in his industrious lifetime. All of his writings are influential and applicable today because their subject matter is universal and often part of human nature, no matter the time period in which it was first written.

The base themes for many of his works are those which humans will experience forever, including greed, love, life, and death. People both suffer from and delight in these things today as they did hundreds of years ago. The value of the works lies not only in the subject matter itself, but also in how the writer created the stories and painted a picture with mere words.

The human condition is about the strongest subject matter that one can write about. And in Shakespeare's works this includes elements of social class differences, racism, and the abuses of power by some. Other required readings often have these same subjects in them as well.

There are other reasons for requiring the reading of Shakespeare for students, in addition to the subject matter. His plays helped to shape the English language as it is known today. His word creation, structure, ideas, and style all dramatically changed the course of literature and the English language in the western world and those contributions are still being felt today.




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