To the editor:
Teaching is the art of explaining what appears unexplainable. Learning is finding the answers to the unexplainable. Therefore to teach one must be willing to learn.
One of the perks of teaching in China is that I am given a certain amount of leeway in how I structure and develop my curriculum. I get to try out a variety of ideas in a living laboratory. Unlike our Western classrooms which rely on a strong sense of Socratic methods, students asking questions, Chinese classes tend to trust the wisdom of the teacher. For a native English speaker this can be quite daunting when you try to get your Chinese students to answer a question. Very often you have to resort to picking a student to answer. It can be a little bit excruciating to be mild about it.
This semester I am determined to show my students how the language is an integrated tool in understanding many different aspects of Western thought. In doing this I also hope to open their eyes to the rich knowledge that lies outside of wordlists and rote memorization. The tool: Shakespeare.
I have six classes with about 34 students each. Most of Shakespeare’s plays have at least 20 or more characters. These plays also represent a mother lode of language sets for speakers of English. Beginning with Shakespeare, the pantheon of English quotations that are still in use today can be traced. From Richard
the III, “ My Kingdom for a horse!” and Marc Antony’s, “ Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears” we have many variations that speakers rely on in their presentations. Each student has a chance to have a speaking part and more importantly if the play is done in its entirety then the students get to practice the oral skills with language structures that are still used today. At the same time they also get a chance to see how certain aspects of the cultural history of our language are illustrated.
A careful reading of a Shakespeare play reveals much about the science, history, language, culture, and arts of the time. Julius Cesear, for example, details some of the argument of where the sun rises and when. At the time that it was written Galileo was being examined by the church. Other plays such as “Merry Wives of Windsor” reveal the problems of dirty water from a laundry operation. Each of these examples acts as a foil to introduce new vocabulary, word structures, and ideas that are indirectly related to the play. Importantly, the students by presenting the play get to incorporate this additional vocabulary and knowledge into other lessons.
One thing that my students have discovered is that there is no mention of rice in Shakespeare’s plays. Rice was not a grain eaten by the English at that time. This alone caused gasps when it was brought to their attention. In the subsequent classes, it was easy to tell that the students had tried to prove me wrong by reading the play. Success, they actually read the play. A good teacher learns the delicate art of subterfuge. Hint, Even the noble spud is not part of the Shakespeare language set. There is an agriculture lesson staring you in the face. Didn’t people always have fries?
As I said I have a lot of leeway when setting up my classes. It still remains to be seen whether I can get nearly 200 students to perform six separate Shakespeare plays. But the fun comes from trying something that they do not expect. And as is taught so well in the Aroostook County Schools, if you set high standards and try to meet them very often you will be surprised. All of us learned to meet the challenges that lay before us. Sometimes its our teachers who must throw the gauntlet at our feet.
Orpheus Allison
orpheusallison@mac.com
Shanghai, China
