Teaching Shakespeare

I love writing about Shakespeare. Whenever I write I always imagine my readers having a conversation with me. But it’s still a solitary experience. Teaching, on the other hand, is collaborative. At least, that’s how I think of it. I remember a professor I had in college who gave a lecture course on Shakespeare. He spent the entire class time lecturing with no dialog at all with his students. I found him exceedingly boring.

I think I know enough about Shakespeare, and particularly The Sonnets, to teach something to others. But there will never be a time when I can say that I have nothing more to learn. And what better way to learn than to teach? Teaching offers two opportunities for learning. The first is when preparing a lesson plan. If you find it hard to explain something, it usually means you don’t understand it well enough yourself. That’s an opportunity for self-learning (time to hit the books!). The second is when interacting with students. Almost invariably, someone will come up with an idea you had never thought about. That’s an opportunity for collaborative learning—and that makes teaching fun.

So I am very grateful to my friend who suggested I contact a continuing education program to see if they would be interested in my giving a course on The Sonnets. And they were! I had great fun teaching The Sonnets from the point of view of the story they tell (the approach I take in my book, Shakespeare’s Sonnets Among His Private Friends). I did that last winter and am scheduled to teach the course again (online, as before) this winter. The course is offered by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College (OLLI). The course listings (including mine) are available now and registration will start soon (Tuesday, November 29, 2022). I had a great cadre of students last year from all over the country, I hope some of you will join in this year!