{"id":177831,"date":"2021-02-26T18:24:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T23:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177831"},"modified":"2021-02-26T18:43:52","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T23:43:52","slug":"some-english-teachers-cancel-shakespeare-because-of-racism-homophobia-classism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/some-english-teachers-cancel-shakespeare-because-of-racism-homophobia-classism\/","title":{"rendered":"Some English Teachers Cancel Shakespeare Because Of \u2018Racism, Homophobia, Classism\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsome-english-teachers-cancel-shakespeare-because-of-racism-homophobia-classism%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=177831&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bard-2.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A recent report says more and more American teachers are refusing to teach William Shakespeare in their classrooms, citing alleged racism and intolerance.<\/p>\n<p>According to the January issue of <a class href=\"https:\/\/digital.emagazines.com\/school_library_journal\/20201223\/index.html?t=7f5fbd39-e39f-4757-8978-d948535f2fb6&#038;utm_campaign=mediasourcedtp_slj_1_comp_backsub&#038;utm_source=ELPS&#038;utm_medium=ELPS#p30\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">School Library Journal<\/a>, Amanda MacGregor, a Minnesota-based librarian, bookseller, and freelance journalist \u201casked why teachers were continuing to include Shakespeare in their classrooms,\u201d The Daily Mail <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9263735\/Woke-teachers-cut-Shakespeare-work-white-supremacy-colonization.html\">reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Shakespeare\u2019s works are full of problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism and misogynoir,\u2019 she wrote, with the last word referring to a hatred of black women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Among those who have refused to teach is Claire Bruncke, who taught English at Ilwaco High School in Washington state. \u201cI asked my principal if there was a requirement for how much Shakespeare I needed to cover,\u201d she said, according to the Mail.<\/p>\n<p>She said she was told if she taught the \u201cstandards,\u201d she\u2019d be fine, so she dropped Shakespeare completely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy students\u2019 positive response to this work solidified my decision,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Another teacher, Liz Matthews, who teaches ninth-grade English at Hartford Public High School in Connecticut \u2014 where the student body is 95% black or Hispanic \u2014 said she bailed on Shakespeare and replaced him with works by minority authors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI replaced Romeo and Juliet with The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros last year, and Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds this year,\u201d she said. \u201cRomeo and Juliet\u201d was first published in 1597, while \u201cThe House on Mango Street\u201d was published in 1984 and \u201cLong Way Down\u201d was published in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimply put, the authors and characters of the two new books look and sound like my students, and they can make realistic connections,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cRepresentation matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the Mail said some teachers are making efforts to put Shakespeare in modern context:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><em>Sarah Mulhern Gross, who teaches ninth and twelfth grade English at High Technology High School in Lindcroft, New Jersey, said that she taught Romeo and Juliet \u201cthrough the lens of adolescent brain development with a side of toxic masculinity analysis.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><em>Adriana Adame, who teaches students in Texas who have been through trauma, said that she used Hamlet to discuss coping mechanisms and grief.\u00a0Elizabeth Neilson, who teaches at the Twin Cities Academy in Minnesota, said she used Coriolanus to discuss Marxist theory.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Still others said Shakespeare can be studied so long as other authors dealing with more modern themes are read as well.<\/p>\n<p>Ayanna Thompson, professor of English at Arizona State University and president of the Shakespeare Association of America, recommended combining Shakespeare with authors like Toni Morrison, August Wilson, W.E.B. Du Bois, and James Baldwin, among others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are rich global perspectives from which Shakespeare can be approached, taught, and analyzed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But\u00a0Lorena German, National Council of Teachers of English Anti-Racism Committee chair and a co-founder of the\u00a0Disrupt Texts forum, said Shakespeare should be ditched.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to offer what to read INSTEAD of Shakespeare,\u201d German told the Mail. \u201cTrust me, your kids will be fine if they don\u2019t read him. Everything about the fact that he was a man of his time is problematic about his plays. We cannot teach Shakespeare responsibly and not disrupt the ways people are characterized and developed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent report says more and more American teachers are refusing to teach William Shakespeare in their classrooms, citing alleged racism and intolerance. According to the January issue of School &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2274328,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bard-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Some English Teachers Cancel Shakespeare Because Of \u2018Racism, Homophobia, Classism\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bard-2.jpg?w=1200&h=800&ixlib=react-9.0.3","fifu_image_alt":"Some English Teachers Cancel Shakespeare Because Of \u2018Racism, Homophobia, Classism\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2274328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}