Webb Chapter 5

It's strange that so many students and teachers reference Romeo and Juliet because I never read it at my school, and I don't really know anyone who did. I think what may have happened is it was offered in the basic English class, of which I was a part of for perhaps two weeks. This was the amount of time it took for me to read Of Mice and Men, decide it was a terrible book, and immediately transfer into honors. I think it's important to teach students Shakespeare, but I just don't think the Tempest (or Romeo and Juliet for that matter) is the way to go with it. The problem I see here is that for many students, and it depends on your school, Post-Colonialism is taught over and over and over and over again, it gets boring and it's hard for a teacher to get the sense of that because they're only there for their own class. I think instead of relating literature like Shakespeare to distant historical events it's much more advantageous to relate Shakespeare to current life events and situations. There are so many things that Shakespeare wrote about that can be tied to everyday life, and that's where the main focus should be, and I'm sure Webb talks about this in one of his other chapters. I like the fact that Webb gives so many examples and sources for reading because I know it's the kind of thing that will be really helpful for beginning teachers and I'm trying to keep a good mental list of all the books and suggestions he makes.