So, the freshmen are working on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and as usual, I ended up talking to my own children about my experiences with them. We have the most interesting conversations and this time they gave me some good feedback about general presuppositions about the play and the usefulness of Shakespeare in general.
My son, a seventh grader, was able to summarize the basic plot and wanted to know why Romeo and Juliet ended up killing themselves. Did their deaths, he wanted to know, prove their love? How did that make sense? And, do people really do that? I had to tell him yes, people really do that, but no, it didn't make any sense to me.
In fact, by the end of our unit, I am usually ready to kill both Romeo and Juliet myself. Two more whiny, irresponsible people I have never known. I just can't stand them after "hearing" them moan about their impossible love multiple times a day. The magic of Shakespeare is that they seem like real people to me. And I care enough to be mad at them.
Good authors, of whatever age, make you care. Even if you don't like the characters, even if you think the plot or the situation is crazy--you care.
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