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Should Shakespeare Be Taught to Minority Students?

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Submitted By lrw92f
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Renaissance Literature
December 10, 2012 Should Shakespeare be taught to Minority Students?
Shakespeare is a staple in the English curriculum in American schools. Beginning in seventh or eighth grade, students are fed a steady diet of his tragedies, comedies, histories, and sometimes even the sonnets. Before Michael, Madonna or Prince, he was the one-name artist everyone could relate to globally. This wasn’t always the case. The branding of the name is not accidental. Even more than “William Shakespeare play-wright to American school students” the word Shakespeare, has become a trademark representing the culture and values of a nation.
I approached this project with the firm belief that teaching Shakespeare to non-white students was harmful to their development. Shakespeare being taught to non-white students is a problem because they are being told that their culture isn’t enough. Is this a message we want to send after the last 40 years of minority groups demanding, and receiving, inclusion into society? Aren’t there any other works that could be substituted for the works of Shakespeare’s? Plenty of good candidates are published every year but they aren’t taken seriously. Why not? One reason is of course the name brand recognition of Shakespeare. He has had 500 years to gain a position in the public eye. Another reason is the many contributions that he has made to the English language. Many of the tried and true turn of phrases used today come from his characters. An additional issue is that Shakespeare and the Bible have been associated so much that his works have taken on a sacred connotation. Just as you don’t change, or substitute, sections of the Bible, adapting Shakespeare’s works isn’t easily done. The attitude that Shakespeare is too precious to be changed, however, ignores the tradition of adapting his works for the stage. Nahum

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