Too much Shakespeare?

"Too much Shakespeare 'turns pupils off the Bard'" by Graeme Paton

The Coalition’s new National Curriculum will take a “backwards step” by increasing the number of compulsory plays by the Bard that pupils must study between the age of 11 and 14, it was claimed.

Tim Hands, the Master of Magdalen College School, Oxford, said pupils were best taught Shakespeare by learning about his language and dramatic techniques before moving on to one play at GCSE level.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Dr Hands, a former lecturer in English at Oxford, said the new requirement was created to give the impression that the Government was promoting academic “rigour”, but added: “Too much specification and too much Shakespeare – particularly too early – will hold back pupils, not liberate them.”

Continue reading "Too much Shakespeare 'turns pupils off the Bard'"