Alas and alack, Shakespeare won't be taught in this high ... · 4/27/2016  · "Romeo And Juliet" In Another Class A few miles away at Sacramento New Technology High School, English

Alas and alack, Shakespeare won't betaught in this high school class

Cast members perform a scene from the play "The Duchess of Malfi" at Shakespeare's Globe, a theater in London,England, Jan. 14, 2014. The theater is a reproduction of a Jacobean playhouse and it seats 340 people with two tiers ofgallery seating and an historically accurate pit seating area. Photo: AP/Sang Tan

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Most high school English teachers love William Shakespeare’sworks. Dana Dusbiber does not.

In an essay posted on a Washington Post education blog this month, the California teacherexplained she does not want to teach the 16th century poet and playwright despite hishonored place in American education. His works do not speak well to her ethnicallydiverse students, she said.

Dusbiber’s opinion caught fire online and on the airwaves. Many traditionalists, who wanteducation to stay the same, blasted her viewpoint.

“High school teachers are supposed to love Shakespeare, and I don’t, so I said I didn’t,”said Dusbiber, who teaches at Luther Burbank High School. “I think the reliance onShakespeare is something I find odd.”

By Sacramento Bee, adapted by Newsela staff on 06.25.15 Word Count 745

Adjusting Her Teaching Style

She said she has replaced the Shakespeare's plays in her classroom with works bynonwhite authors. Dusbiber, who is white, said many of her students come from differentethnic and economic backgrounds than her own.

In the 2013-21014 academic year, 96 percent of Burbank students were nonwhites. Also,81 percent qualified for free or reduced-price lunches because their families did not makeenough money, according to state data.

Dusbiber adjusted her teaching style to show nonwhite students successful authors withskin colors similar to theirs. Instead of Shakespeare, Dusbiber assigns texts by authorsfrom different backgrounds. They include Isabel Allende, who was born in Peru, SharonDraper, an African-American children's writer, and Mexican-American Francisco Jimenez.

In her essay, Dusbiber spoke out against teaching Shakespeare. She said his view of theworld is old-fashioned and also that he wrote as a white man.

Dusbiber said it is bad to cling “to ONE (white) MAN’S view of life as he lived it so longago." By doing so, "we (perhaps unwittingly) promote the notion that other culturalperspectives are less important,” she wrote.

"Romeo And Juliet" In Another Class

A few miles away at Sacramento New Technology High School, English teacher ChristineBaker modernizes Shakespeare's works and creates interactive lessons for her students.Shakespeare wrote in English, but it is English of 400 years ago and difficult to understandtoday.

Four out of 5 students at the south Sacramento campus are nonwhites.

Baker admitted Shakespeare's style of writing can be boring when read as a book insteadof a play. But she does not believe it should be removed from high school English classes.

She said Dusbiber’s view on the matter is ridiculous.

Baker studied ways to modernize Shakespeare at the University of California, Davis, in2013. She asked her students to act out part of his play “Romeo and Juliet” before readingit on their own.

"Romeo and Juliet" is about two teens who fell in love but were prevented from marrying bytheir families.

“They get the feeling of fighting families, of young love,” Baker said. “They might make funof it at first, but then I’ll remind them that they’re doing the same things in the hallways andthey’re like, ‘Oh yeah.’”

"Not To Be Read And Deadened"

Burbank Principal Ted Appel said he asked Dusbiber to make it clear that her views wereher own, not the school's.

Dusbiber is not the first educator to suggest moving away from Shakespeare in theclassroom. Mark Powell, the assistant director at Salisbury Playhouse in England, wrote asimilar opinion piece in The Guardian, a British newspaper. Shakespeare’s "words werechosen to be spoken or heard, not to be read and deadened behind a desk," Powell wrote.Shakespeare's plays lose all life when they are not performed.

Sacramento City Unified School District trustees last week voted to require students indistrict high schools to complete an ethnic studies course before graduation. The newrequirement, in which students have to learn about other cultures, starts in 2020.

Dusbiber’s view attracted negative reactions from many people across the country. Most ofthe opposition came from conservative thinkers, who like traditionalists do not think theeducation system should change, though the left-wing magazine New Republic did not likeher argument either. The magazine stated that it is important to teach Shakespeare sostudents understand how people thought in the past.

Appel said Dusbiber’s main goal was to make sure teenagers learned about manyviewpoints during their time in high school.

“Her real concern is that students have an opportunity to be exposed to a broad array oftexts and assignments,” Appel said. “The ultimate goal is to help students (think) aboutimportant questions and ideas.”

Quiz

1 Based on the information given in the section “Adjusting Her Teaching Style,” what could beanother good title for the section?

(A) "One Man’s View Of Life"

(B) "Teaching Complete Perspective"

(C) "Majority Of Burbank Students White"

(D) "Authors From Diverse Backgrounds"

2 Which section of the article PRIMARILY talks about making Shakespearean studies morerational and relevant to modern education?

(A) Introduction [paragraphs 1-4]

(B) “Adjusting Her Teaching Style”

(C) "Romeo And Juliet In Another Class"

(D) "Not To Be Read And Deadened"

3 Read the first 3 paragraphs of the section "Not To Be Read And Deadened."

Which of the following phrases from the section means the opposite of the word "obscure"?

(A) to make it clear

(B) to suggest moving away

(C) to be spoken or heard

(D) to complete something

4 Read the first paragraph of the section “Adjusting Her Teaching Style.”

Dusbiber, who is white, said many of her students come from differentethnic and economic backgrounds than her own.

In which of the following sentences is the word "background" used in the SAME sense as it isabove?

(A) The elections are taking place against a background of violence.

(B) The name of the company is written in red on a white background.

(C) He prefers to remain in the background and let his assistant talk to thepress.

(D) He had the background and the education for the role of a senior manager.