[evincarofautumn]

I could hardly believe we got to read Shakespeare’s plays in my high school English classes. I swear, nearly everything is a sex joke. Luckily, thanks to the minor language differences, most of the students barely understood the gist of the story, let alone the puns and innuendos, leaving me to die of silent laughter and/or embarrassment.

[jerf]

I know for a fact that effectively nobody involved with high school Shakespeare education understands Shakespeare, up to and including the teachers, because if they did it would never pass muster in a modern school. Oh, sure, the teachers may intellectually know it's filthy, and may intellectually pass that on to the students, but if they really understood it, it would not be there. As it stands now, it's more like telling students that there exists a dirty joke on the internet; true enough, but it hasn't got the sleezy joy of a real dirty joke like the original audience experienced.

[endtwist]

One of my favorite high school teachers took the time to explain each and every dirty joke in A Midsummer Night's Dream; he was, consequently, one of the best English teachers I ever had.

By the end of the year, the school fired him.

[tomjen3]

Which of his plays did you read, perchance?

[evincarofautumn]

While in high school, I think I only read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and The Taming of the Shrew.

[orbitingpluto]

Much Ado About Nothing stands out as particularly dirty in my mind.