College students keep Shakespeare alive

Dance was part of yesterday's celebration of Shakespeare by Rangitoto College English students. Photo / Martin Sykes

Shakespeare may have lost his place in the new curriculum, but he was far from dead at Rangitoto College in Mairangi Bay yesterday.

The school's 250 Year 13 English students devoted the day to all things Shakespearean - from feasts to plays to dance. Having studied the playwright since Year 9, they are familiar with at least four plays by the time they leave school.

Director of English Christine Parkinson said: "It's setting a standard, doing some of the most difficult texts in literature and not being scared of them."

English teacher Gemma Wilson said it was stupid to stop New Zealand students from learning about texts that were part of world history.

She said her students developed an appreciation of Shakespeare from a young age - her Year 10 students had tears in their eyes when she told them about it.

Josh Kimpton, 17, who was dressed as Shakespeare, said he enjoyed the novelty of the playwright's language and believed learning it would help him in his university studies.

Zoe Phillips said she loved the way Shakespearean characters masked their true selves until the end of the play and that "people were as bad as they are today 400 years ago".

Many schools have stopped teaching him already. NCEA statistics show that of 40,818 students sitting externally assessed Level 3 English last year, only 8624 sat the component of responding critically to a Shakespearean drama.

* An earlier version of this story said Shakespeare had been dropped from the compulsory school curriculum. The playwright was never compulsry reading.