I specified Julius Caesar because that was the only Shakespeare on the Sophomore
Honors curriculum at her school. Any Shakespeare--The Tempest, Macbeth, etc. would
have been great. I just wanted her to have an exposure to it more than once.
It's a shame that the teacher didn't think the girls were equally worth appealing
to. When I taught Senior GT/AP English, we read, among other things: Beowulf,
Canterbury Tales, Paradise Lost, Hamlet, and then, Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering
Heights. I felt the girls were due something that wasn't so male focused. I had
problems with boys who said, "Why are we reading this Chick Lit?" I said, "It's a
classic!"
Vicki :-)
Vicki Nelson
Librarian
Odessa High School
Ector County ISD
>>> Debbie Balsam <dbalsam@cox.net> 05/08/06 12:29 PM >>>
Dear Vicki, I didn't read Julius Caesar in my Regent English class
either and that was in the 1960's. We read 1 a year Macbeth, Hamlet,
and I think the Tempest, can't remember the third. So not everyone
read the same literature in HS. I remember complaining to my Sophomore
English teacher about all the male oriented books and requested a
female character for one of our novels. He replied that they needed to
keep the male interest and the females enjoyed reading.
In HS I didn't care for Shakespeare. To hard to understand. As an adult
with our Kennedy Center play subscription, we see a Shakespeare play
every year, usually by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Now I enjoy the
plays. I bring more maturity and a better sense of history to the
experience.
Debra Balsam. retired
Vienna, Va
dbalsam@cox.net
On May 8, 2006, at 12:50 PM, Vicki Nelson wrote:
> When I graduated with a degree in English, I was much more prepared in
> content than in educational techniques because the college I attended
> required that you graduate with a degree and then get certified for
> teaching. My content classes were very rigorous while the educational
> ones were not that helpful.
>
> I've also noticed that there is less rigor in classes across the
> board. As you pointed out, fifteen years ago when I started teaching,
> we taught 3 novels a semester. Now, they are not likely to be
> required to read more than one. I *think* the standardized testing
> has something to do with this. There is so much focus on it that
> everything else falls by the wayside.
>
> I'm still a little annoyed that my daughter, who is 24 wasn't required
> to read Julius Caesar in her Honors Sophomore English class. I'll
> eventually get over it <g>, but the reason she didn't * the teacher
> didn't like teaching Shakespeare and substituted Frankenstein. The
> thing is, they don't read Shakespeare as a junior, and if the senior
> teacher also doesn't like to teach Shakespeare, they go all the way
> through highschool without any exposure. Also, (English teacher
> ranting her--Julius Caesar helps them get ready to read and understand
> senior Shakespeare plays like Hamlet and King Lear that can be
> difficult on the first go around).
>
> I wanted my students to graduate with a core of knowledge in addition
> to knowing how to think critically, study effectively and find
> information on their own.
>
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