The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0539  Wednesday, 7 June 2006

From: 		Al Magary <
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Date: 		Tuesday, 06 Jun 2006 20:58:29 -0700
Subject: 	"Eat dagger, old man!" Macbeth tells Duncan

Anger over 'dumbing down' of Shakespeare in schools

Daily Mail, June 6, 2006

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=389410&in_page_id=1770

[There is apparently a sidebar, "Read the translations," at 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=389412&in_page_id=1770 
but this produced an error message. Can anyone in UK locate these 
"translations"?]

Thousands of teenagers across the country are studying 'dumbed down' 
Shakespeare plays at school, it was revealed yesterday.

They are using texts and GCSE revision guides which reduce the great 
works of literature to a series of simplistic cartoons and jokes.

Critics yesterday condemned the 'puerile' attempts to make Shakespeare 
more accessible and claimed it made a mockery of attempts to drive up 
standards in the country's schools.

They believe that the move to simplify everything to the lowest possible 
denominator explains growing numbers of howlers in students' exam papers.

Examiners recently complained that teenagers are approaching 
Shakespeare's plays as if they are TV soap operas, peppering their 
essays with conversational clich