{"product_id":"how-to-teach-your-children-shakespeare-isbn-9780307951502","title":"How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare","description":"\u003cb\u003eA foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare, by a Tony Award–winning playwright\u003cb\u003e—now featuring two new chapters\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant.”—Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare Book\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His plays are among the great bedrocks of Western civilization and contain the finest writing of the past 450 years. Many of the best novels, plays, poems, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from \u003ci\u003ePride and Prejudice\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather\u003c\/i\u003e—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. In \u003ci\u003eHow to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, \u003c\/i\u003eacclaimed playwright Ken Ludwig provides the tools you need to inspire an understanding, and a love, of Shakespeare’s works in your children, and to have fun together along the way.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKen Ludwig devised his friendly, easy-to-master methods while teaching his own children. Beginning with memorizing short passages from the plays, his technique then instills children with cultural references they will utilize for years to come. Ludwig’s approach includes understanding of the time period and implications of Shakespeare’s diction as well as the invaluable lessons behind his words and stories. Colorfully incorporating the history of Shakespearean theater and society, \u003ci\u003eHow to Teach Your Children Shakespeare\u003c\/i\u003e guides readers on an informed and adventurous journey through the world in which the Bard wrote.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book’s simple process allows anyone to impart to children the wisdom of plays like \u003ci\u003eA Midsummer Night’s Dream\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTwelfth Night, Macbeth, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRomeo and Juliet\u003c\/i\u003e. And there’s fun to be had throughout. Shakespeare novices and experts and readers of all ages will each find something delightfully irresistible in \u003ci\u003eHow to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.\u003c\/i\u003e“Ken Ludwig's enthusiasm for Shakespeare and his lucid, accessible and inspiring book on \u003ci\u003eHow To Teach Your Children Shakespeare\u003c\/i\u003e is a rare treat. You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant. I highly recommend the book to all who have a love of language and history.”\u003cb\u003e—Sir Derek Jacobi, CBE\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eHow to Teach Your Children Shakespeare \u003c\/i\u003eis an inspired and inspiring book. It’s also a deeply rewarding one that will bring a great deal of pleasure to many parents and children. Ken Ludwig, a wonderful playwright, proves to be a superb guide to Shakespeare as well.”\u003cb\u003e—James Shapiro, author of \u003ci\u003eA Year in the Life of William Shakespeare\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eContested Will\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I wish someone had given this book to my parents. It would have made a life-changing task downright fun. Ken Ludwig is a smart, congenial and inventive guide, and everywhere in this remarkable book he takes the strangeness out of Shakespeare's work and leaves the enchanting mystery. A book for all lovers, and potential lovers, of Shakespeare. Like nothing else, it creates a magical home theater for parents and their children.”\u003cb\u003e—J. D. McClatchy, Yale University \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“I have been in [Ken's] home. His children really do know Shakespeare. Read the book and you'll see why. It's scholarship dancing around with fun.”\u003cb\u003e—Hal Holbrook\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Don’t be fooled by the title. This book is for anyone who wants to brush up on Shakespeare… Don’t buy this book to teach your children; take them along as you commit these beautiful speeches to memory.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“[Ludiwg’s] enthusiasm is also infectious . . . it’s hard to come away from this book without wanting to find someone, child or adult, to convert.”—\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eCleveland Plain Dealer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eKen Ludwig\u003c\/b\u003e is an internationally acclaimed playwright who has had numerous hits on Broadway, in London, and throughout the world. His plays and musicals include \u003ci\u003eLend Me a Tenor\u003c\/i\u003e, which won two Tony Awards, and \u003ci\u003eCrazy for You\u003c\/i\u003e, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical. He has also won two Laurence Olivier Awards and the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America. His work has been commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has been performed in over thirty countries in more than twenty languages.chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePassage 1 Learning the First Line\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank where the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNine words. Each word has one syllable. Nine syllables.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat’s all it is.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt isn’t hard to learn this line of poetry. It’s from the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, and I’ll bet your son or daughter can memorize it in less than a minute.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are two keys to memorizing it:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst, say it aloud.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSecond, repeat it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo let’s do it together: Say this aloud:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow say it again:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow say it four times in a row. No kidding. Just do it—and promise me that you’ll do it aloud:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDid you say it aloud? Because if you didn’t, this won’t work, I assure you. In order to do it properly, you have to go to a place where you won’t be embarrassed. Just pick a room and close the door. Then sit down with your son or daughter and do it together. Say it aloud four times. If you’ve done this honestly, as I’ve described, you’ve now got it in your brain, and you’ll never forget it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow do the same thing with the second half of the line. The words are more complex but not difficult at all. Have your child say them aloud:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhere the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow say them again:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhere the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt’s important when you learn Shakespeare that you understand every word you’re reading or memorizing. Your children should understand that a bank is a mound of grass on the side of a stream or river, and that thyme is a flowering plant with a strong smell. It is less commonly known that blow in Shakespeare’s day meant “burst into flower.” So what the speaker is describing is a mound of grass, probably near a stream, where the wild thyme is blowing in the breeze and bursting into flower.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow let’s go back to the words. Say the second half of the line again, four times, out loud.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhere the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhere the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhere the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhere the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you’ve said these words aloud, you and your child can now put the whole line together without difficulty. Do it. Say it aloud:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank where the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSay it again, and really enjoy saying it, because it’s good for the soul.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank where the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne last time, and this time say it in a hushed tone, painting a picture with the words, describing a place of great beauty and depth:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI know a bank where the wild thyme blows\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd now you and your child have memorized some Shakespeare. Believe me, it will stay with both of you for the rest of your lives. And it will change your lives.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003echapter 2\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Reason for the Book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet’s pause for a moment so I can give you some background. When I’m finished, we’ll dig right back into the first passage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI’ve been teaching Shakespeare to my children since they were six years old. I’m a bit of a Shakespeare fanatic, and it occurred to me when my daughter was in first grade that if there was any skill—any single area of learning and culture—that I could impart to her while we were both healthy and happy and able to share things together in a calm, focused, pre-teen way, then Shakespeare was it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI began the process by teaching her lines from my favorite Shakespeare comedies; and as I continued with this method and expanded it to include my son, I became convinced that the way into the subject—the way to introduce someone to Shakespeare for the first time so that it doesn’t feel daunting and yet has real integrity—is to memorize it. First a few lines, then whole speeches.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith Shakespeare, memorizing is the key to everything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA great deal of this book will involve memorizing speeches from Shakespeare’s plays. Along the way we’ll discuss other important aspects of Shakespeare—the stories, the verse, the imagery, the characters—everything that you and your children should know in order to understand how Shakespeare changed the world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo good questions arise right away: Why Shakespeare? And why memorize it?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy Shakespeare?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe answer to the first question is that Shakespeare isn’t just one of the many great authors in the English language; Shakespeare is, indisputably, one of the two great bedrocks of Western civilization in English. (The other is the King James translation of the Bible.) Not only do Shakespeare’s plays themselves contain the finest writing of the past 450 years, but most of the best novels, plays, poetry, and films in the English language produced since Shakespeare’s death in 1616—from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens, from Ulysses to The Godfather—are heavily influenced by Shakespeare’s stories, characters, language, and themes. As Falstaff says in Henry IV, Part 2:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShakespeare is not only creative in himself—he is the cause of creation in other writers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor many of us, Shakespeare has become a kind of Bible for the modern world, bringing us together intellectually the way religious services have traditionally done. For more than five thousand years, Moses, Jesus, and the other towering figures of the Old and New Testaments were the archetypes of our consciousness. In modern society, Hamlet and Macbeth, Juliet and Ophelia, have been added to their number. To know some Shakespeare gives you a head start in life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlso, Shakespeare’s powers as a writer simply exceed those of every other writer in the history of the English language. Here is an excerpt from the diary of the distinguished English novelist and essayist Virginia Woolf, who speaks here for every writer I know:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI read Shakespeare directly after I have finished writing, when my mind is agape and red and hot. Then it is astonishing. I never yet knew how amazing his stretch and speed and word-coining power is, until I felt it utterly outpace and outrace my own, seeming to start equal and then I see him draw ahead and do things I could not in my wildest tumult and utmost press of mind imagine. [T]he words drop so fast one can’t pick them up. . . . Why then should anyone else attempt to write. This is not “writing” at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhy Memorize It?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs for memorization, I’m convinced that it unlocks the whole world of Shakespeare in a unique way. In order to memorize something, you have to be very specific and very honest with yourself. You have to work slowly, and you have to understand every word of what you’re memorizing. There was a time not long ago when memorization was considered to be one of the basic tools of an academic education. Students were expected to learn hundreds of lines from the Greek and Roman classics, then, later, from poetry in their native tongues. This tradition has faded from our lives, and something powerful has been lost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat said, Shakespeare can be difficult to read, let alone memorize, without some help. Most people who pick up one of Shakespeare’s plays and try to read it for pleasure end up putting it down after the first few pages because they find it confusing. And this is true for adults, let alone children.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are several reasons for this. First, many of Shakespeare’s words are unfamiliar to us. When Hamlet, in the most famous speech in the English language (To be or not to be), refers to something called a bodkin, most of us just scratch our heads and want to give up. (A bodkin is a dagger.)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSecond, Shakespeare’s sentence structure often sounds odd to our ears. This is partly because Shakespeare wrote his plays more than four hundred years ago and partly because a substantial portion of his plays are in poetry. Thus he’s frequently saying things like Conceal me what I am instead of “Disguise me.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThird, Shakespeare frequently writes in metaphors. His mind was so lively and cunning, so profound and imaginative, that he was always telling us how something was like something else, and it often takes some effort to puzzle out his meaning. For example, in one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches from Romeo and Juliet, he has Romeo compare Juliet’s eyes to stars in the night sky. He has Romeo say that the real stars have to hurry away, and they (the stars) have asked Juliet’s eyes to take their place. Then Romeo adds that Juliet’s eyes would—in place of the stars—shine so brightly that birds would start singing because they’d think it was daytime, not nighttime. Here’s what he actually says:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo of the fairest stars in all the heaven,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHaving some business, do entreat her eyes\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo twinkle in their spheres till they return. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer eye in heaven\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWould through the airy regions stream so bright\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat birds would sing and think it were not night.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is obviously a complex piece of writing, yet my son won a recitation contest with this speech when he was eleven years old.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe point is that Shakespeare is like a foreign language. In order to learn it, we need to understand every word, then practice until we feel comfortable. If your children memorize one line at a time, then a short speech, then a longer speech, they’ll become self-assured and then fluent. At that point, Shakespeare will become part of their literary vocabulary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Value of Knowing Shakespeare\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKnowing Shakespeare in depth has profound implications for your children. It means that they can begin to view life through a Shakespearean lens, using the questions that Shakespeare raises in his plays as a point of reference as they learn to form their own opinions. What does Twelfth Night tell us about the relationship between brothers and sisters? What does Hamlet tell us about the anxiety we feel when a parent dies?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn addition, Shakespeare articulates emotions that help children understand the stresses of their daily lives. When children hear Juliet say:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGive me my Romeo; and when I shall die\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTake him and cut him out in little stars,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd he will make the face of heaven so fine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat all the world will be in love with night\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eor they hear Macbeth utter:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLife’s but a walking shadow, . . . It is a tale\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSignifying nothing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethey are likely to feel that thoughts of longing, death, and hopelessness are less alien to them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the beginning, I had a number of additional goals in mind in teaching my children Shakespeare. One was to give them the tools to read Shakespeare’s works with intelligence for the rest of their lives. On the simplest level, this will enrich their lives and give them a lifetime of pleasure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnother goal was to expose them to literature of such universal depth and worth that it would inspire them to want to achieve great things as they marched forward into maturity. I have staked my life as a writer on the proposition that the arts make a difference in how we see the world and how we conduct our lives—how we view charity to our neighbors and justice to our communities—and Shakespeare, as the greatest artist in the history of our civilization, has worlds to teach us as long as we have the tools we need to understand him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom a very personal standpoint, the course of Shakespeare studies outlined in this book also provided me and my children with hundreds of hours of one-on-one time together that we never would have shared otherwise. These hours spent together have made our family stronger and more tolerant of one another.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn a practical note, I had another, very specific goal in mind: to teach my children at least twenty-five passages from Shakespeare’s plays so that they could have the lines at their fingertips and spout them whenever the occasion presented itself. The occasion might be citing a literary reference in an English essay, or it might include making an intelligent point in conversation. These uses, frankly, open doors for our children, which is what we as parents are, rightly, always trying to do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeing fluent in Shakespeare from an early age imparts one last advantage that has a significance all its own: It gives my children self-confidence. It gives them the tools, as Falstaff might say, to be witty in themselves and be proud of it. As a father, this is one of the best parts of the whole exercise.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003echapter 3\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Plan of the Book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet me outline the plan of this book so you know what’s coming. Then we’ll get right back to I know a bank.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Twenty-five Passages\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTogether you and I will teach your children twenty-five passages of Shakespeare by heart. We’ll start with short, accessible passages; then gradually we’ll increase the length and complexity of the passages until, toward the end, we’ll go for a few entire soliloquies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI have strong views about which plays—and which passages from these plays—your children will find it easiest to start with, and I have put them in a very specific order. If you follow this order, I can just about guarantee that your kids won’t get bogged down and frustrated.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think that children do best by starting with the comedies. Specifically, I find that A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night are the most child-friendly of all the plays, and we’ll spend a good deal of time on them. We’ll then move more quickly through the canon in order to expose your children to some of Shakespeare’s most famous works. Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet, for example, are simply part of our cultural DNA and cannot be missed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShakespeare’s Language\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn every chapter, I’ll be quoting a great deal of Shakespeare’s poetry and prose in addition to the passages being memorized. I’m doing this to expose your children to as much of Shakespeare’s language as possible. I’ve chosen these additional passages carefully, as I want your children to come away from this book with a level of familiarity with Shakespeare that they can’t get elsewhere. In every case, you and your children should read the additional passages aloud.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Stories and Characters\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlong with the passages themselves, we’ll teach your children the plots and characters to go with them. This is not only valuable in itself but will help them memorize the passages more quickly, and they’ll remember them longer. If you learn the line Lord what fools these mortals be! and associate it with a hilarious little sprite named Robin Goodfellow in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, you’ll never forget either the character or the line.Introduction by John Lithgow","brand":"Crown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302884626661,"sku":"NP9780307951502","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780307951502.jpg?v=1767729480","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/how-to-teach-your-children-shakespeare-isbn-9780307951502","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}