Ken Robinson, a legend in the educational world, once mused in one of his brilliant TED talks (available on YouTube and extremely worth viewing) that we probably have never thought of William Shakespeare, the greatest ever playwright, having a father or of Shakespeare being seven years old – we just think of him writing numerous plays a long, long time ago.
Robinson amusingly imagines Shakespeare’s father telling him to “go to bed now and put that pencil down” or “Stop speaking like that; you’re confusing everyone”! He wonders if Shakespeare’s teacher ever wrote in his report “Must try harder”! We might add: did his teachers ever think that this boy would end up writing brilliant plays that would be studied over 400 years later? Or did they say, like one modern report: “This student should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better.”
While we are at it, we might also reflect on how it must have felt for other playwrights of the time to be living and writing at the same time as Shakespeare and so not getting the acclaim that they might have had if they lived in a different era. Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson were his rivals at the time, but Shakespeare outshone them both, great as they were. It was a bit like Antonio Salieri, a brilliant composer, being alive at the same time as the genius of Mozart. Just their luck!
Of course, that was then and this is now (which might have made a good title for a Shakespeare play, come to think if it). We still study Shakespeare plays, though we might note in passing the remark made by someone that “school was much easier in Shakespeare’s day because they didn’t have to study Shakespeare”! It does make us wonder though: why do we continue to study Shakespeare plays or even ‘modernise’ them by placing them in a modern context (as some have turned ‘The Merchant of Venice’ into ‘The Vendor of Harare’)? What can we learn from them?
Let us remember first that Shakespeare wrote 36 plays, conveniently packaged by modern scholars into three categories: tragedies, comedies and histories (though the only real difference between the tragedies and the comedies is that the central characters die in tragedies and marry in comedies, even if some husbands may think there is no difference)! Are they in reality ‘Much Ado About Nothing’? Are they just to be taken ‘As You Like It’? Is it a matter of ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’ as long as there is a perfect ending? Did he have to write all those plays? Come on, give us a break!
The fact is that we are indeed richer for having them. They do perhaps contain ‘Much Ado’ but they are certainly not ‘About Nothing’. And they do ask important questions, such as whether the ends justify the means (or the means justify the ends). The modern world loves to think that everything is a matter of ‘As You Like It’ with no consideration of truth, principles, values.
And this is just the point. We can benefit greatly from looking at Shakespeare’s plays even now as they speak very powerfully and acutely into relevant, crucial life lessons and necessary, vital life skills, even if we may reflect that he was never fully appreciated in his own day (though people did flock to the theatre at the time) as he is today and even that there is little profit for him that the world recognises, respects and reveres him now, long after he is dead. Did he write in order to leave a legacy? Or did he just love to write plays? Was he aware he was teaching millions of people?
The themes and events characterised in his plays are still very evident and relevant in our lives today. He wrote about human nature, exploring and unveiling different approaches to situations that could lead to positive solutions or dangerous results. He wrote about human nature as he saw it around him, the same human nature that is at the heart of us all today, even with technological advances, and it is these that are the most important, significant, relevant lessons that we need to be teaching at school today. Children are at school to learn about themselves and others, to understand themselves and others, to learn from their and others’ mistakes and successes, to develop socially – not to pass examinations (on Shakespeare or science or anything).
- July Moyo’s empire crumbles
- Inside the minds of serial killers
- History repeats itself
- Much ado about nothing
Keep Reading
So, thank you, William Shakespeare (and his father and mother)! All will be well if we end this article well and show it is not much ado about nothing. Shakespeare is much ado about everything that relates to our children. It will be a tragedy, cemented in history, if we treat such lessons as comedy.
Tim Middleton is the executive director of the Association of Trust Schools [ATS]. The views expressed in this article, however, are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of the ATS.
Email: tim@atszim.org website: atszim.org
