Classics like Shakespeare
Shakespearian literature is a confusing classical mess of another language that is hard to understand for many. Grade schools love to use Shakespeare in their curriculums, decidedly use it right off the bat at the beginning of the year as an introduction to the literary world.When schools use confusing classics as a student’s forced introduction to the literary world it can cause some issues.Shakespeare shouldn’t be taught in the younger years of grade school, especially not as an introduction to the literary world, at least not in the entirety original work.
Shakespeare is great for higher education like high school and college but for students as young as sixth grade it is a struggle for students to read. Language wise it’s quite different from how people write and talk today, it’s essentially an entirely different language that needs to be translated by the readers as they are reading and if you don’t have the interpretation skills that comes with experience with reading like most young students don’t it can be very challenging to try for the first time. It’s easier on high schoolers and college students that have grown a skill set in reading and interpreting reading but for students that are in sixth grade and had never read outside bedtime stories or small sentences from grammar,vocab, and spelling practice it’s hard to do.
Shakespeare doesn’t carry obvious relevance to younger students. Yes there are lessons to learn from Shakespeare’s works and there are meanings that have value to people within his works but they aren’t very obvious. You have to dig to find these connections between Shakespeare and the real world and for a story like Romeo and Juliet it’s hard for even college students to find. Students learn better and keep with class readings when they are relevant to their lives, they need to connect to the books they are reading. This is hard to happen with classics like romeo and juliet because some kinds might not yet care for romance and almost all know how silly it is to kill yourself to be with your love. The obvious lessons in classics are ones that most students already know and the others are buried too deep in strange tongues and of hand stage directions to understand.
Starting with Shakespeare level classics as a literary introduction is unmotivating. Because of how confusing Shakespeare is and how young these kids are reading him, it’s hard to understand. Shakespeare was a comedian of his time and his plays are lined with jokes that are too aged or too adult for kids to understand. When kids are introduced to the world of literature with Shakespeare it’s hard to grasp that there is more to that world than confusing classics that only take up one little corner. It’s easy to think that all or most books as they get older are just as confusing and take just as much effort to read as Shakespeare because that is all they are witnessing at the time. This can lead students to become distant with reading, unmotivated to actually pick up books and read them outside of schools control. Meaning less kids are experiencing reading in general and don’t get the same benefits of reading the others that are reading get.
This isn’t a new topic of convocation either, the convocation on whether kids should read the original Shakespeare. There has always been an understanding of how important classics are, no one is disrupting that understanding however Shakespeare is confusing, faces very mature content, and confusing language, can be a lot for kids that aren’t familiar with classics in general. In 1807 Charles Lamb wrote a book that made it easier for children to understand Shakespeare’s plays. He wrote the book with his sister and translated the complicated language of Shakespeare’s plays into something that kids that aren’t used to Shakespeare could read: “Their introduction noted that Shakespeare’s own words were incorporated into the stories when possible, so that readers could get a sense for his style, though much of his vocabulary was simplified in order to eliminate unfamiliar or otherwise confusing language.” (“Shakespeare for Children”). Of course during their time they were trying to make it appropriate for very young children so they removed sensitive content that wasn’t appropriate. However the convocation has minorly changed from children as a whole to children in the classroom.
Schools understand that children in elementary school are too young for classics, it’s too much on top of developing their skills for the modern language which can already be a struggle, they are still learning to read and they likely wouldn’t retain nor remember what the books were about so schools decide to introduce classics into the middle school years. It’s not always classics like Shakespeare, there are other types of classics that are easier to read and fully understand than Shakespeare. Play works and poems from Shakespeare’s period are some of the harder classics to not just read but understand since they are often metaphorical and sometimes missing key details that would only be given on stage but through time have been forgotten and merely speculated about by people with doctorates in English classic literature. Kids going into middle school are usually at different reading levels on top of being introduced to the literary world. Class lessons don’t always allow kids to move at their own pace which can make reading Shakespeare extra tricky.
Teachers are coming up with creative ways to make Shakespeare easier for students. One teacher David Rickert wrote a blog titled “Teaching Shakespeare to Struggling Readers” where he mentions all the ways teachers can get creative for their struggling students when it comes to teaching a work as complicated as Shakespeare. “Comics of Shakespeare plays can be used in a variety of ways to help students read Shakespeare. Use them as a fun way to introduce each act before reading in a way that allows students to match up images to the text.” (Rickert), is one of the ideas brought up in the blog. Rickert also mentions reading it in pieces instead of in its entirety or even starting from the middle to immediately grasp the reader’s attention. He also mentions using videos to teach Shakespeare, since Shakespeare’s works are plays this one makes the most sense for teaching Shakespeare in general because Shakespeare is a play.
Over time people have been inspired by the works of Shakespeare and written adaptations in novel form that would be better understood by students in the middle school years. Because they are adaptations they have a lot of the same lessons and key points of Shakespeare plays that have been written in a different way that might connect to the readers in a more meaningful way because its a novel instead of stage dialogue.
In another blog written to help teachers with creative ways to teach Shakespeare the first suggestion involves interpreting the language: “ It’s a fun way for students to begin to understand what’s being said by the characters and insert a bit of their personality into the lessons. One of my favorite lessons for this activity is to have students work in partners and rewrite the Prologue in Romeo and Juliet in modern language.” (“Teaching Shakespeare”). This assignment does sound fun with keeping students involved with Shakespeare, if each group got a different or even the same pieces of text without context so the students can interpret it however works for them before bringing together the class for them to discuss their interpretations, which would help with students’ understanding of Shakespeare. The blog also mentions performing Shakespeare, either again watching Shakespeare or doing mini performances while class reads. The blog even suggests simply focusing on Shakespeare sonnets for class lessons instead of the plays as an ease in.
Shakespeare is complicated and difficult to understand as a whole on their own as no play is particularly easy to read though Shakespeare is the most difficult. Teachers understand that Shakespeare isn’t easy on a student and it’s hard to keep motivated when faced with working with Shakespeare so teachers are trying to come up with fun creative ways to keep the students attention and motivation while also trying to make reading the complex work of Shakespeare easier. Simply telling students to read Shakespeare and giving them an essay assignment on it isn’t a constructive way to introduce students to literature nor English in general as they have been doing for decades.
Work cited
“Shakespeare for Children – Shakespeare through the Ages.” Udel.edu, 2020, exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/shakespeare-through-the-ages/home/shakespeare-for-children/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
Rickert, David. “Teaching Shakespeare to Struggling Readers – David Rickert.” David Rickert, 19 July 2020, davidrickert.com/teaching-shakespeare-to-struggling-readers/.“Teaching Shakespeare: 5 Fun Ways to Teach Shakespeare – the Daring English Teacher.” The Daring English Teacher, 18 Feb. 2018, thedaringenglishteacher.com/5-fun-ways-to-teach-shakespeare-in/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
Sprockets and Springes 