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LINK 'Woke' teachers have cut Shakespeare because his work is about 'white supremacy and colonization' | Daily Mail Online

I was waiting for this. Knew it would happen. Woke meets Will Shakespeare.

Goodbye to the Bard.

Well, what about " Get thee to a Nunnery."?

Can't talk to women like that.

Anyone have a time machine back to the 20th Century? Looking for one.

David1955 8 Feb 15
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OK I'm back. Amanda MacGregor, not a teacher but a librarian, bookseller and freelance journalist wrote an article about changing approaches to teaching Shakespeare. This included some teachers who have switched to other texts. The line "'Shakespeare's works are full of problematic, outdated ideas, with plenty of misogyny, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism and misogynoir" does appear in the source article but it's far from the article's thesis and not written by a teacher. [digital.emagazines.com]
The other quotes do seem to come mainly from the source article. They do feature some teachers who have chosen to teach from different works but for the most part none are saying that Shakespeare promotes white Nationalisim or Colonization. The closest is Lorena German who features in Amanda MacGregor's article but the Mail has dug deeper into her #DisruptTexts hashtag to find her use the word problematic and to state "Othello suffered from Iago's (and others'😉 racist attack, and his blackness was used as part of his downfall"
Note that the article gives equal weight to teachers who's used Shakespeare in new ways, and contains great praise for Shakespeare to temper the criticism that it as a product of it's time is less representative of or relevant to a modern audience.
So the headline is entirely editorial and not reflective of statements made by teachers. Shakespeare is still being taught all over the place but some teacher have substituted other texts and others have updated their approach.
Still I guess the headline "Teachers update lesson plans with less emphasis on Shakespeare for various reasons" wouldn't get the clicks.

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I'm just about to read the link. I note that it is from the Daily Mail. I confidently predict that there will be no statement from a teacher saying that shakespeare is about either white supremacy and colonization. I will also not be surprised if I find that shakespeare is stll being taught in english lessons accross the land. I'm about to dive in wish me well.

Yeah, i thought the same thing, but it's not the first time I've read about a growing PC revisionist thinking about Shakespeare. We'll see, but don't be surprised.

@David1955 A big clue that it Shakespeare was unlikely to address colonialism was that the Mayflower landed in 1620 four years after the death of Shakespeare. There had been a colony in Jamestown for 9 years by the time the Bard died and the British East India company had already acquired its first port some 4 years before his death. Modern colonialism was in its infancy. One of his later plays, The Tempest is often examined in post colonial terms but not usually as an endorsement of colonialism.

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Which works of literature and are going to be banned next because words or paragraphs or gender references are deemed politically incorrect by the woke brigade? Why can't classic works of literature remain so and viewed in the context of the times in which they were wrote.

Apparently, the word ' obese ' is now politically incorrect: "Under draft guidance issued by the National Institute for Clinical Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) those who are obese should be encouraged to get down to a ' healthier weight.' A few years ago the word ' obese ' was temporarily replaced with ' altered body mass.'

What sort of mindset does ' vertically challenged ' instill in the person so described? The corruption of language is no different from the burning books which is usually followed by dictatorships. Dictatorships even under the guise of benevolent dictatorships, are dictatorships.

Will future generations view us as ' intellectually challenged ' because we value free speech? I wonder if it will be acceptable for me to read to my future grandchild the story of Snow Grey and the Seven Persons of Restricted Growth...

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Those who ignore history, are doomed to repeat its mistakes.

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This gets ridiculous. Don't judge a man, who is probably a pseudonym, for the times he lived.

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