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> Its an enormous human accomplishment whose cultural impact virtually cannot be overstated That's just your opinion. I think Shakespeare is trash. I don't t

> Its an enormous human accomplishment whose cultural impact virtually cannot be overstated That's just your opinion. I think Shakespeare is trash. I don't think most people can even comprehend the Bill of Rights. We should replace Shakespeare with Super Mario. Outside of socialite circles, literally no one cares about Shakespeare. How many kids you see walking around in Shakespeare T-shirts or reading Shakespeare on the school bus? Those kids are into Super Mario, and so are many adults. Super Mario is the embodiment of art, international relations, technology and engineering of the sum-total of humanity at the time. Shakespeare is just some words.

vincent-toups 7y ago
I'm rolling my eyes so hard they could fall out of my head. You can only form an opinion about Shakespeare (or Mario (though the kids are into Fortnight these days, they tell me)) if you are exposed to them. Both things have enormous cultural importance and are part of the human experience and all people deserve to be able to engage critically in culture. Shakespeare very well could be trash. The Bill of Rights is by and large a shockingly hypocritical document. But both are part of our history, along with a lot of other stuff about which we could say all sorts of things visa vi what ought to be in a curriculum. But my point is that humans deserve to know their history and their culture and that takes resources and time and energy which are, in the final analysis, justified by the inherent dignity and rights of people.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  > But both are part of our history Shakespeare is not part of my history, I'm not English, nor am I anglo-american. Shakespeare was never important, only popular, but that's easily confused in the US. Just one of the first generations of celebrity-worship culture. > humans deserve to know their history and their culture People get culture from family and society, not from government run schools.

vincent-toups 7y ago

I'm rolling my eyes so hard they could fall out of my head. You can only form an opinion about Shakespeare (or Mario (though the kids are into Fortnight these days, they tell me)) if you are exposed to them. Both things have enormous cultural importance and are part of the human experience and all people deserve to be able to engage critically in culture. Shakespeare very well could be trash. The Bill of Rights is by and large a shockingly hypocritical document. But both are part of our history, along with a lot of other stuff about which we could say all sorts of things visa vi what ought to be in a curriculum. But my point is that humans deserve to know their history and their culture and that takes resources and time and energy which are, in the final analysis, justified by the inherent dignity and rights of people.

linuxftw 7y ago
> But both are part of our history Shakespeare is not part of my history, I'm not English, nor am I anglo-american. Shakespeare was never important, only popular, but that's easily confused in the US. Just one of the first generations of celebrity-worship culture. > humans deserve to know their history and their culture People get culture from family and society, not from government run schools.