> the joke being, of course, that it's ludicrous to think anyone ever tried to teach English to the greatest English writer of all time That's not the joke. T

> the joke being, of course, that it's ludicrous to think anyone ever tried to teach English to the greatest English writer of all time That's not the joke. The joke is, you can't imagine some teacher today tolerating Shakespeare-like talk. See his intro anecdote. Someone fidgeting and being unruly is more likely to get medicated than educated. > But really? Isn't the logical conclusion the opposite? That Shakespeare's English teacher was the best English teacher there ever was Do you know that he wrote because he had the greatest English teacher? Or was it his own passion? Or did he just hate someone's guts enough. For example Harlan Ellison hated his writing teacher. I think the teacher even threw Harlan out of the class. So Harlan being the tiny ball of spite, as he was, mailed mentions of his rewards to the man, some letters even found him post-humously. Because Harlan forgot to check up on him.