How deep has your experience with reading William Shakespeare been? Is that experience tied to your formal education, the theater or movies, or your own personal reading? Do you prefer the comedies to the tragedies, or vice versa? Perhaps you love his sonnets best?
In this episode, EconTalk host Russ Roberts welcomes Scott Newstok of Rhodes College to discuss his teaching experience and his new book, How to Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons on a Renaissance Education.
1- Why is Newstok such a strong advocate of teaching Shakespeare today? What is singular about the work of Shakespeare, according to Newstok, and what are we to take from it? To what extent does this align with your own experience of Shakespeare?
2- What does Newstok mean when he talks about the ongoing community of responses to Shakespeare? Why is this so important to him in the study of Shakespeare? (It may help to c0nsider the quote from Kenneth Burke near the 25 minute mark.)
3- What does Roberts find most appealing about Shakespeare? What sentiments or experiences do you share with him? Which Shakespeare plays have you read and/or see performed? How did they affect you? What did you learn from them?
4- What constitutes good teaching for Newstok? What role does drafting play in his teaching? (Think about how art, math, writing, etc. emerge.) How might this practice be put to good effect in your life?
5- What makes a conversation ideal? What does Roberts mean when he suggests that parents and teachers instruct young people on manners, but not conversation? To what extent is it possible to teach the art of good conversation, and how?
READER COMMENTS
John Alcorn
Jan 31 2021 at 4:12pm
1. Prof. Newstock cut his teeth on Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s scope is awesome; his character portraits intimate. The world on stage, and the mind a world.
2. Compare Machiavelli:
3. I turn to Shakespeare for insights into (a) psychology, especially the emotions; (b) the roles of blindness and ignorance in human affairs; and (c) moral luck.
4. In econ jargon, a draft enables the mind then to focus on adjustments at the margin: gradient-climbing towards a local maximum. Drafts also enable precise feedback by others. IMO, drafts work best when students do their level best on the draft before submitting it to the professor. Write the draft “as if” it will be graded as the final product. Then feedback will be tighter. Alas, inclusion of a draft stage for papers in courses can partly backfire, if students shift effort to the professor. Teaching is a messy business! PS: Upstream, an outline is a vehicle for brainstorming at the 1st decimal with the professor.
5. I didn’t find the conversation about teaching conversation persuasive. There are risks of elitism. Already we ask youths and students to engage too much in ‘performative’ behaviors. Perhaps the best ways to encourage good conversation are simply to take polite interest in the views and experiences of others; and to shift educational pedagogy from lectures to seminars and workshops, if resources allow.
John Alcorn
Feb 28 2021 at 8:45pm
Philosopher Michael Huemer makes a case against Shakespeare in education: “Why I hate Shakespeare*,” Fake Nous (27 February 2021).
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