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Andrew Dickens: Our kids should know Shakespeare · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the draft year seven to thirteen English Curriculum. Okay, Matt, yesterday,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and it proposes compulsory Shakespeare for senior secondary school students.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're going to have to do one of the plays
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: you attend to thirteen. That provoked a bit of a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: debate about the relevance of Shakespeare in this day and age. Now,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Shakespeare is obviously very very important, but is it essential
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Because even when I was at secondary school, which is
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: a very long time ago, now forty five years ago,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Shakespeare was not popular amongst students. One year we were
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: studying Hamlet. So the school, a major school in Auckland,
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  Speaker 1: oh Come Grammar School. The school organized an afternoon matinee
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of the play and it happened at the Mercury Theater.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: So we all got on buses and we turned up
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to the Mercury Theater and we were so rowdy that
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: a young Michael Hurst, who was playing the Danish Prince,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: commented that this is the worst audience I have ever
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: encountered in the theater. A whole theater full of boys
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: hating Hamlet. We didn't even calm down in the sword fights. However,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: that did not happen when we study more modern texts
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: like Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman or even Thomas
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  Speaker 1: Becket's Murder in the Cathedral, Because I'll tell you why
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: those plays used language. We understood. Those plays had themes
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: we could relate to, as Shakespeare did not. To teach,
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  Speaker 1: you must engage. And much in all as we bemoan
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the fall of Shakespeare amongst the young, he's still so
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: strong that his influence of the modern world will not fail.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: So what will engage the kids? And I really don't know.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: This generation is less engaged in all sorts of stuff
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: than ever so much so I had to explain who
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Bob Geldoff was to my twenty six year old son
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: the other day. And speaking of rock and roll, I'll
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: tell you the most engagement I ever had at school
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: was when my Engish teacher said we should study the
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: lyrics of David Bowie's song Time from the Aladdinsane album.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And we loved it and we got into it in depth.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: And let's remember, here's another thing. In twenty sixteen, Bob
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Would anyone mind
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: if he was added to the curricular I don't think so.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: So what do you think. By the way, I also
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: see the new curriculum says that spelling and keyboard lessons
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: for children at intermediate schools should be compulsory. You mean
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: that not already? How do I kid survive in this
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: modern world? For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talks it Be from five am weekdays,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.