Originally Posted by robbdn

Just to throw out my opinion really quick... there is nothing about Shakespeare that must be taught. There aren't any lessons of life exclusive to Shakespeare, as many in this thread have pointed out, you can learn Shakespeare's themes by watching many current Hollywood films. There's nothing necessary about Shakespeare in any way, shape, or form... he's practically completely irrelevant, due to the fact that he has been copied so many time into more current, comprehensible forms.

The only reason Shakespeare sticks around is because it's been accepted as a valid form of scholarship and high art... so people who are obsessed with media, like myself, master Shakespeare and then make a living off of comparing media with Shakespeare. The ability for people with these jobs to continue doing these jobs requires that Shakespeare be continually presented as essential to any education, otherwise they would be out of work and replaced with more contemporary media scholars/teachers. If I was teaching high school English, and I had my way, I'd replace Shakespeare with Quentin Tarantino and teach kids to think critically with something they're familiar with and something they already think is cool.