What to Teach?

As an English education major who doesn't necessarily enjoy reading Shakespeare herself, I often question how and what I will teach my future students. In school, I read a couple of Shakespeare's plays, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. Being an avid reader, I didn't mind reading these plays and I was able to understand them with the help of my teachers. Times are changing and there is so much literature out there. Having to incorporate Shakespeare into our curriculum as secondary teachers can often times be very difficult. Students aren't interested in the classics or even play writing. I know I wasn't. Shakespeare can teach many lessons and give insight to the history of the time, though. It's being able to decide which plays to teach the students that is the most important part of being an English teacher. There are difficult lessons to be learned throughout many of Shakespeare's plays, but our students live difficult lives every single day. My point is Shakespeare touches on many life, country, and national problems. As a future teacher, I have to figure out the plays that will keep my students engage and the ones that they will actually retain information from. I really enjoyed Henry V because it was historical, and I think teaching historical plays is important. Most of the historical plays are entertaining, engaging, and students learn and retain information about events in history, even when teachers don't think they do. That's the kind of information I look for when thinking of teaching my future students. I also look for qualities in plays that might relate to current problems in the world. A great example is The Merchant of Venice that we are reading now. This is a more difficult text to read, but it has so many lessons and even relates a little to history. It is very relevant and relatable today, especially for students growing up in the United States. The question is: How would I teach a play like this? It's important students have background knowledge on what is going on in the play and in history at the time, so I would begin by covering the basics. Sometimes I might even have the students read a Young Adult Lit book that has similar themes or lessons that could easily bridge to the Shakespeare work. This makes it easier for students to understand and grasp the concepts I am wanting to get across to them. Often times parents and school districts disapprove of books, plays, or poems that hit on tough subjects. We as educators, especially as literature specialists,  have to be able to get around those obstacles and be the ones to touch on the "tough subjects". We have to understand Shakespeare's writing and lessons and be able to relate that to our students and pass that onto them. Shakespeare can be difficult and we may not always have the answers.However, we must always know what is best for our students, and most of the time we'll have to include that Old White Dude in our classroom.