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Commentary (School Library Journal)
January 4, 2021

Is Shakespeare Still Relevant to Today's Students?

All's well that ends well: eradicating the Western culture one dead white male at the time



Shakespeare was a genius wordsmith who created engaging works that spoke to the human condition, psychology, and identity.

But he was very much of his time. Shakespeare's works are full of problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir. Which raises the question: Is Shakespeare more valuable or relevant than myriad other authors who have written masterfully about anguish, love, history, comedy, and humanity in the past 400-odd years?

A growing number of educators are asking this about Shakespeare, along with other pillars of the canon, coming to the conclusion that it's time for Shakespeare to be set aside or deemphasized to make room for modern, diverse, and inclusive voices.

Lorena Germán, an Austin, TX, educator and a cofounder of DisruptTexts, suggested alternatives in a #DisruptTexts Twitter chat. "Trust me, your kids will be fine if they don't read [Shakespeare]", Germán wrote. She suggested educators update their syllabus to include Dutchman by Amiri Baraka, Color Struck by Zora Neale Hurston, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange, and Athol Fugard's "Master Harold"… and the Boys. "These are all plays and have so much to break down. They're deep and powerful".

"There is nothing to be gained from Shakespeare that couldn't be gotten from exploring the works of other authors", Austin says. "It's worth pushing back against the idea that somehow Shakespeare stands alone as a solitary genius when every culture has transcendent writers that don't get included in our curriculum or classroom libraries".

Campos agrees. "Surely no author should be given such an elevated place in our curriculum", he says. "Asking ourselves why we privilege certain texts and authors is a conversation more teachers need to be having".
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