Shakespeare shouldn't be compulsory

This House would discontinue the compulsory teaching of Shakespeare in schools FOR

Definitions:
William Shakespeare: English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language.
Discontinue: Cease doing or providing (something), typically something provided on a regular basis.
Compulsory: Required by law or a rule; obligatory.
Schools: An institution for educating children, in this case the UK

Shakespeare in Schools: To Teach or Not to Teach?
A pile of well thumbed copies of a Shakespeare play is a common sight in secondary schools across the country. The government say that all teenagers should be taught Shakespeare and knowledge of at least two plays is examined through the Key Stage Three SATs and GCSE English exam. Why is this? Is it really necessary to study the writing of a man who was alive over four hundred years ago? Would today’s teenagers miss out if they left school without any awareness of Shakespeare’s plays?

The answer to that is no. Students associate Shakespeare with an out of date school curriculum and are switched off before they even open the first page, is it fair to persist in forcing all students to study his plays? It’s not as if there aren’t any talented modern writers who use language cleverly to tell thought provoking stories. If English lessons are supposed to encourage a love of literature, it would make more sense to let students have choice over what they study, depending on their interests and their own cultural influences and beliefs. Anyway, Shakespeare himself wrote plays to be enjoyed in performance, not studied in great depth in a classroom and certainly not examined in national tests.

It’s not necessary
Many students are put off Shakespeare by the old language that does look and sound different to the language used by teenagers today. If we believe that reading makes us better writers, it doesn’t really help if what we are reading is out of date in terms of spelling, sentence structure and vocabulary. With the exception of those students who go on to be English teachers, librarians or writers themselves, knowledge of a Shakespeare play doesn’t obviously help a student who leaves school to become a vet, a plumber or an architect. For these students, time could be better spent concentrating on writing and reading skills that are necessary in modern society where the Media has the dominant role.

Even teachers think it’s a bad idea
Shakespeare is the only prescribed author in the UK schools’ National Curriculum but not everyone thinks compulsory Shakespeare is a good idea, least of all teachers. Before the launch of the National Curriculum in 1988 examining boards advised teachers to steer low achieving students away from Shakespeare and in 1993, after he became required reading, five hundred academics signed a letter to the Times Educational Supplement saying, ‘We are all committed to the study of Shakespeare; but to make such study compulsory for 14 year olds is to risk permanently alienating a large number of children from the pleasurable understanding of classical literary works.”

It’s boring in school
Many students who find Shakespeare boring say that sitting at desks and reading the plays, rather than performing them, is one of the main frustrations. And who couldn’t agree? Reading through scripts in class in monotone voices is hardly captivating. A script is like a musical score, telling only half the story. The text comes alive with the physical dynamic of the actors and the information which the set, lighting and music provide. Sadly, as we all know- this is simply not possible in schools. And there is no substitute for the shared experience of seeing Shakespeare live.