Think back to your high school English classes. Did you read Romeo and Juliet as a freshman? What about Hamlet in your senior year?
Studying Shakespeare is required in the Common Core English Language Arts standards, but the Bard secured his place on the English curriculum in American classrooms long before the Common Core was established.
As Jonathan Burton explained for the Shakespeare in American Life radio documentary, sections of Shakespeare’s plays appeared in the McGuffey Readers, one of the most common “textbooks” in nineteenth-century America.
Shakespeare appears first in the McGuffey Reader, the Fourth Reader, of 1837, and this work has just two passages in it. One is a section of King John and it’s merely entitled “Prince Arthur” and the name of the play does not even appear. The same can be said of the one excerpt from Julius Caesar that’s also included, which is entitled “Antony’s Oration over Caesar’s Dead Body.” Here it’s important to note that Shakespeare’s name does not appear with these passages, nor does the name of the play.
Today, the Folger Shakespeare Library Editions are the most popular Shakespeare texts used in American high school classrooms. In 2015 and in 2014, Romeo and Juliet was the top seller, followed by Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, and Julius Caesar.
We asked our Twitter followers about which Shakespeare plays they studied in high school, what they thought of them now, and whether that opinion changed as they got older. We also asked about Jane Austen, because of our current exhibition, Will & Jane – but we found, unsurprisingly, that far fewer respondents had read Austen in a high school English class. If they had, it was likely Pride and Prejudice.
Read some of the tweets we received, and leave your own comment below!
R & J, Macbeth, & Hamlet. Enjoyed Macbeth and Hamlet more because that was an upper level class, where as R&J was 9th grade.
— Sarah Wingo (@SgWingo) August 24, 2016
Memorized Hamlet's instructions to the Player King in HS. Still know it. My daughter read my HS copy of P&P.
— Mara Novak (@NaraMovak) August 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/Rose_Fairbanks/status/769518584578146304
“Merchant”, “Caesar”, & Scottish play, but really discovered S. in my 20s via Charles Williams. Also first found JA in my 20s
— John W Kennedy (@john_w_kennedy) August 24, 2016
My first Shakespeare experience in HS was Macbeth. I remember thinking it was better than Hill Street Blues. It certainly is.
— Rich Sanders (@Askam221Rich) August 29, 2016
Which Shakespeare plays or Austen novels did you read in your high school English class? Tell us in the comments below.
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Comments
I taught in my California district for 40 years. R & J was commonly taught at the 9th-grade level and JC at the 10-grade level, altho’ the curriculum had changed so radically with Common Core that I’m not sure about either of those now. My last 7 years of teaching I taught AP Lit. and included Hamlet and Twelfth Night (honestly, the students deserved to read at least one comedy) in my curriculum.
Nancy Schwalen — August 30, 2016
I also taught Pride and Prejudice, The Piano Lesson by August Wilson, Beowulf ( the Heaney translation) and Grendel, plus other works of lit.
Nancy Schwalen — August 30, 2016
In high school, we only read Romeo and Juliet 9th grade; however, that year, a BBC production of King Lear was being broadcast on PBS and my teacher gave extra credit if we watched it and wrote a summary of the play. When I taught Honors English, I taught R & J to my 9th & 10th graders as an introduction to the Bard; JC to my 10th graders; and Hamlet, Lear, and Midsummer NIght’s Dream to my 12th grade AP English Lit class.
Kathy Ramirez — August 30, 2016
In high school in Detroit, I had to read a play every year: R&J, JC, and Macbeth. We never read Austen in school, and I knew few who did, which is why I insisted on including it in my curriculum. I’ve taught Hamlet to my sophomores every year for four years, but our British Lit course is jam packed with goodies: King Arthur, Shakespeare, Paradise Lost, Swift, and of course Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities.
Mrs. Bananabaker — August 30, 2016
I have taught R&J, twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and Macbeth. I had a lot of luck with Richard III, too. I always-thought the language was the most important part, and veered away from Will S as rapper. I took a busload of students on a field trip to see Hamlet outdoors once–California Shakespeare Theater. As for Jane Austen, I love Pride and Prejudice, but the Colin Firth version just means that kids watch it and don’t read it. My Advanced Placement students did well with Persuasion, and I paired Northanger Abbey with Frankenstein–and lots of Romantic poetry..
Cindy Watter — August 31, 2016
We read Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade, Julius Caesar in 10th grade, and Macbeth in 12th grade. There was no Austen in our curriculum, even in “British Literature” in the 12th grade.
Mark Bylander — June 8, 2017
I taught high school English for 40 years in California. Romeo and Juliet was taught in the 9th grade and Julius Caesar in the 10th. Macbeth tended to be taught in the regular 12th grade classes. For my last 7 years, I taught AP Literature and I used both Hamlet and Twelfth Night in my curriculum (because I wanted my students to be exposed to at least one comedy). The other AP teacher taught Macbeth.
Nancy Schwalen — June 8, 2017
And, regarding Jane Austen, I taught Pride and Prejudice to the AP students also.
Nancy Schwalen — June 8, 2017
We are a k-8 school. We have been teaching, from original text, Julius Caesar in 7th and Hamlet in 8th Grades. We teach edited versions in the following grades but they still retain a lot of the original language. I have found that kids can figure it out. 6th- Midsummer Nights Dream, 5th – As You Like It, 4th – Comedy of Errors (kids think it’s hysterical), 3rd The Tempest. In 1-3 we rely more on picture books. 2nd- As You Like It, 1st – Twelfth Night.The greatest problem is that classroom teachers tend to be afraid of the language so 3/4 of the battle is helping them feel comfortable with it. Since our students will read Julius Caesar again in high school, we are considering changing 7th grade to Othello or Henry V.
Valerie Scott — June 18, 2018
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Resource Guide: ‘The Shakespeare Requirement’ by Julie Schumacher - The Folger Spotlight — April 28, 2021