Back to school

With school starting up again, I’ve been thinking a lot about issues in teaching and learning. My thoughts keep returning to Dana Dusbiber, the high school teacher from Sacramento who suggested back in June that we should remove Shakespeare from the English curriculum. Her opinion, published in the Washington Post, naturally riled the Shakespeare-loving community, which circled its wagons in defense of the Bard. Sadly, many of the responses focused on attacking Dusbiber personally, calling her (among other things) ignorant, illiterate, and racist. I don’t know Dusbiber or her students, but what I see in her opinion isn’t an ignorant, illiterate racist but a veteran teacher searching for the best ways to educate her students. She shows passion for her work and for the well-being of her students.

She is, however, wrong.

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