Raunchy Shakespeare
Shakespeare’s plays have been with us for more than 400 years. They survived Puritanism, Victorianism, and butchering by high school drama clubs. After all that, the Bard’s work may have met its end in Ron DeSantis’s Florida.
Ronnie’s Parental Rights In Education Act forbids schools from sexual content unless it is part of the curriculum, like in Health Class (or possibly in the gym locker room where many of us gained that knowledge from our peers). Ronnie’s State Education Secretary decided to limit Shakespeare study to excerpts from his plays, but not the whole shebang. He explained, “There’s some raunchiness in Shakespeare because that’s what sold tickets in his time. In staying with excerpts, we can avoid anything racy or sexual. Teachers are advised, during class lessons, to stay with the approved guidelines, which call for excerpts. If not, in extreme circumstances, they might have to defend themselves against a parent complaint or a disciplinary case at their school.”
When I was a sexually-curious lad, I would make a bee-line for the Shakespeare section of the school library. “MacBeth” was more prurient than “Deep Throat”. In “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the buffoon named “Bottom” was transformed into a donkey AKA an ass. That got the teen hormones flowing.
The balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet” likely won’t make it in to Florida curricula, but the fact that the stage is littered with dead bodies at the climax of “Hamlet”, “King Lear”, or “MacBeth” is OK. What is more “raunchy” than murder, Mr Secretary?
All it takes is one irate parent to end the career of a Florida English teacher. Any teacher knows that excerpts without context don’t work. You have to read all of “Romeo and Juliet” to realize that it is not about two crazy kids in love, but how feuds between powerful families destroy everything that they hold dear.
Shakespeare is difficult to read and lacks car chases and explosions. I was blessed with English teachers who pushed me through the archaic language to the sublime genius that is Shakespeare. Florida kids will have to do that by themselves.
By Ed Dufton
