Top 10 Reasons Students Need to Study Shakespeare

#Achievement

Erin Werra

by Erin Werra

Erin Werra Edtech Thought Leader

Read time:

1. To recognize the classics, give them at least one to obsess over.

Romeo & Juliet is goth, torrid, and horrifying. The perfect tragic romance and the equivalent of a single gas station rose. (Did you know MCR is touring again?)

2. To use secret fancy code language around their future children and dogs.

Fake Olde English or whatever flowery vocabulary word(s) stick in your brain.

3. To realize that invented words are indeed words.

Shakespeare invented half these words, and Gen Z invented the others:

Eyeball. Skibidi. Besmirch. Rizz. Caked. Uh… also caked.

4. To master the 1996 CD-ROM point-and-click game Where In Time Is Carmen Sandiego?

In which Billy Shakes will insult you until you get it right, Burbage.

5. To have an opportunity to showcase their inner Thespian.

It’s going to ignite passion in at least one kid. But they travel in troupes so realistically 4–12 kids.

6. To ensure hyperlexic kids have two glorious weeks in which to revel.

Popcorn reading has never been more aggravating, though.

7. To introduce the OG concept of the poetry equivalent of “doing it for the plot”.

You had your minion turn your wife’s lover into a donkey? Lol okay bro.

8. To provide historic context around the modern diss track.

The thesis statement of Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” is “Hell is empty and the devils are all here” btw. Allow me to put you all on game.

9. To build a frame of reference for modern culture, arts, and literature.

From cartoons to film to paintings, Shakespeare’s influence reigns.

10. To capture the joy and pleasure (and challenge and strife) of tearing apart literature line-by-line and word-by-word to unearth meaning between them.

“Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”