"Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?"

Are my grandchildren ever introduced to Shakespeare in school these days? In fact, are anyone's grandchildren introduced to his interesting sense of humor?

Well, I was. In eighth grade, I played Hermia in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

At first we read Shakespeare in class. We giggled about the weird fifteenth century language, and yawned as the hour dragged on and on while we read words and phrases we didn't understand at all. I had a certain advantage in that I had read the King James Version of the Bible all my life up to that point. I was familiar with the thee's and thou's and other diction of the times. I dug it. But a lot of Shakespeare's humor was lost on me...

After reading for a few weeks, we went to the auditorium and read the lines on the stage to be chosen for the various parts. I put everything I had into the reading, although I confess not much of it made sense to me. Anyway, I was chosen as the character Hermia, who was in love with Lysander, who spurned her because of  some fairy concoction he drank which made him think he loved Helena... Well, it's complicated. Shakespeare was good at that.

We practiced for months and finally presented the play in the spring. The auditorium was full. My parents were there, though later they confessed they didn't understand any of it but were glad I played my part and got a good grade on it and and were also glad it was over. So was I.

Since then I have occasionally run into the old guy (Shakespeare) and enjoyed him again. The older I grow, the better I understand his wit. However, without having had the experience of playing in one of his plays when I was in eighth grade, I would not have made the effort to read Shakespeare after I was grown up.

These days, with all the media available to my grandchildren, I would be surprised if any of them are willing to put forth the effort necessary to enjoy Shakespeare. I'm a little sad about that. But on the bright side, the media makes God's word more readily available to everyone, including young people. I'd much rather my grandchildren have God's Word instilled in them by whatever means, even if it would mean they never heard of Shakespeare.

What do you think?