Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 47 Years.] TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1922. SHAKESPEARE AND EDUCATION.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 48, Issue 14609, 7 March 1922, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established 47 Years.] TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1922. SHAKESPEARE AND EDUCATION.

It is the custom of those to whom the education of our children is entrusted in this country to allot from time to time one of the plays of Shalcespeare as a subject for study and snbsecpient examination. Unfortunately, it is the almost invariable (tendency of childhood—and, indeed, of humanity generally —to regard with more or less aversion that which is enforced upon it; and it is doubtful -whether this tendency can be overcome by any method of presenting the task. The pill remains a pill, however well it may be gilded or sugared, and its deglutition is none the less an act of painful duty because of the spoonful of jam in which i.t may be hidden. The unfortunate effect of this is that very many of those who have had perforce to swallow “ Julius Caesar,” or whatever the particular subject may be, together with the usual garniture of notes and glossaries, acquire (therewith such a distaste for Shakespeare and all his works that nothing under compulsion will in after life induce them to read a single play. Which is a consummation devoutly to be deplored, but a consummation, none the less, which not even the most earnest lover and interpreter of his subject—and there are many such among our teaching staff —can ever hope entirely to avoid. The London County Council some little time ago, decided to expend a, considera*ble sum of money in subsidising a. dramatic company of ability to give regular performances of the most suitable of Shakespeare’s plays before the pupils attending the various schools within its jurisdiction. The result was highly successful. Instead of being compelled to feed alone upon the indigestible dry bones of the text books, these fortunate childien wcr given a full and healthy meal. The plays were presented to them as they should be presented, and as thy were intended, by the form in which their author delivered them for ithe stage. If it be admitted —as surely it must be admitted —that Shakespeare should be “taught” at all, there can be no question as to the value of this method as an aid to teaching. The children (themselves may not yet, perhaps, appreciate the real value of that assistance, but when in after life they remember Portia, Antonio, Shylock, and the rest with pleasure rather than with pain, and are led by that happy recollection of a closer acquaintance with tho rest of Shakespeare’s immortal characters, they will understand and acknowledge their indebtedness.