When the name “William Shakespeare'' is mentioned, people usually think of Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and a man with a donkey’s head.
However, woke teachers usually think of racism and white supremacy.
According to the Washington Times, many teachers nowadays claim that William Shakespeare’s plays are riddled with - and should be stripped of - white supremacist beliefs. They insist that his works either be accompanied by texts with themes centered on equality to balance the scales, or be removed from the curriculum entirely.
To that end, some teachers have paired “Romeo and Juliet" with an analysis on toxic masculinity, and “Coriolanus” with Marxist theory when presenting the plays to their students.
Lorena German, a teacher and writer for #DisruptTexts, claimed that “there is an over-saturation of Shakespeare in our schools and that many teachers continue to unnecessarily place him on a pedestal as a paragon of what all language should be.” She further pointed out that the playwright’s works are riddled with “violence, misogyny, racism, and more.”
Related: Oregon Dept. of Ed Warns Of 'White Supremacy' In Math
#DisruptTexts is a “crowdsourced, grass roots effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the traditional canon in order to create a more inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum that our students deserve,” according to their website.
“It is part of our mission to aid and develop teachers committed to anti-racist/anti-bias teaching pedagogy and practices,” the movement adds.
But if other teachers choose to remove Shakespeare’s works from curriculums, what should they be replaced with? The answer is young adult novels, according to The School Library Journal, self-described as the “premiere publication for librarians and information specialists who work with children and teens.”
The question now is, would you rather have your teenager read “Twelfth Night,” or “Twilight?”