In the US, Shakespeare is almost guaranteed to appear in High School English classes, especially literature-focused ones. Is equal attention paid to him in the UK, given that he was from there?

21 comments

  3. He is like the inventor of modern English, of course he is taught here.

    Pretty sure all kids wouldve studied 3+ of his plays.

  4. In England, he gets quite a lot of attention. The English Literature GCSE, while technically not obligatory, is taken by nearly everyone, and Shakespeare is one of the three papers you have to sit for it (alongside pre- and post-1914 literature).

  7. We go to high school for 5 years and in that time I had to study Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. So we only did Shakespeare in 3 of the 5 years. Everyone has probably studied 2-3 plays. More if they took English Lit past age 16 (which is optional).

  8. School in Shakespeares day and age was vastly different to our own. In fact, it was far easier – because he didn’t have to study Shakespeare.
    – Philomenia Cunk

  9. When I was in school we focused on Romeo and Juliet for 2 years and my GCSE Lit exam was based on it

  10. My son started secondary in September (I can’t remember what US grade that is, but he turned 12 a couple of weeks ago). I have just checked his English curriculum. They do A Midsummer Night’s Dream this year (Year 7), Romeo and Juliet next year, Much Ado About Nothing in year 9, and Macbeth in year 11.

    It looks like the text is their main focus for half a term of English lessons each time so that would be about 20 hours on each, very roughly.

  11. We had Romeo and Juliet twice and Macbeth once in the 5 years. Once of mice and men. And then as I can’t remember it was probably Romeo and Juliet again. Same as food tech was bread for 3 years.

  12. No Shakespeare at school, but I did go to one of the worst schools in the country and a few kids in my class were borderline illiterate. Elizabethan English would have been a stretch.
    At A-level (ages 16-17) the ruff-bedecked ponce was everywhere. Had to study three of his plays, plus another by his quill-bothering mate Christopher Marlowe.

  14. We only did Julius Caesar and Hamlet, but I’m from Scotland so probably less focus on him here.

  15. Watched the Romeo and Juliet film (leonardo dicaprio) in English lessons and watched the bbc Shakespeare retold episodes. These were watched at the end of the year/ term because the teacher didn’t give us work to do.
    Only thing I can remember reading is of mice and men and blood brothers.

    My exam was mainly about of mice and men.

  16. As others have said, for GCSE English, it’s nearly obligatory for you to cover it. Then before GCSE we did at least 2 Shakespeare plays.

    Having studied them though, the plays are far better when someone shitfaced is acting in them.

  17. Nowadays English language and literature are mandatory and Shakespeare features in every year. Macbeth is on the GCSE exam.

  18. We did at least a little Shakespeare every year when I was in secondary school. There was even some in primary school. I don’t think anyone managed to really appreciate it artistically until we got to A-Level.

    Shakespeare in schools is often excessive and unhelpful. Students need to learn fundamental tools and rules. Proper grammar, rhetorical devices, rhyming schemes etc.

    I’ve tutored English to GCSE students, and its a hassle to get even a bright student to understand something like iambic pentameter or the structure of a sonnet while referring to a poem that is effectively in a different language.

    Even when students get the literal meaning of the stanzas, you might have to go out of your way to explain how the connotations of words were different four-hundred years ago, while explaining what connotation even is.

    You could just find a John Cooper Clarke poem that won’t upset the parents too much and explain the rhyming scheme in a quarter of the time.

  19. My Son is studying English Literature at University of Birmingham, and they are studying, As you like it, and they have been to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford upon Avon in their first term. So it’s looking good so far…

  20. Yes, one play a year. I remember doing a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet

  21. Off the top of my head, I studied Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth + probs a couple of others in secondary school, and then King Lear, Twelfth Night, and Much Ado About Nothing during my English Lit A-level, which was pure misery. So yeah, it’s quite a big part of the curriculum. Many schools might even run trips to watch performances of the plays.

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