The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

The Student News Site of Walt Whitman High School

The Black and White

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March 21, 2024

Shakespeare Fest: to be or not to be? That shouldn’t be a question.

This April, students won’t dress up in velvet robes and colorful tights, catapults won’t line the softball field and Walt Whitman High School won’t travel back in time to the Renaissance.

The English department recently cancelled the Shakespeare Festival—the source of such festive scenes— because many teachers were no longer willing to spare a day of teaching in order to celebrate Shakespeare’s works. This is an unfortunate decision, as the festival is a school tradition that should continue for students in the future.

The festival began on a smaller scale within the Shakespeare club, said composition assistant Orion Hyson, who has directed the festival for the past five years.  Enthusiasm from students and teachers boosted the festival into a full-day, hands-on experience that occurred every year. But in recent years, teacher interest has declined, Hyson said.

Yet, many students are still passionate about the festival. Junior Beatriz Sevilla says that she’s disappointed to find out that without the Shakespeare Festival, she will never have an excuse to make rhubarb pie. Shakespeare club leader Alex Xourias said he will miss the traveling acting troupe, his favorite feature of the festival.

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The event provides a welcome break from the regular classroom setting, and students enjoy learning from their classmates instead of teachers for a day. Cancelling this festival means taking away a great interactive learning experience.

One of the best aspects about the festival was that it enabled students to learn about the Elizabethan era in the context of subjects other than English. For example, anatomy students researched the medicine of the time and physics students built trebuchets to hurl tennis balls on the upper field.

Teachers’ main issue with the Shakespeare Festival was that it took away class time. Because the event had so many great aspects, teachers should be willing to spare one day of class instruction every two years.

Several teachers also argue that the event adds unnecessary work to their extensive workload, Hyson said. But most teachers would give other assignments in place of the Shakespeare Festival, which means they would have the same amount of work anyway. Without the Shakespeare Festival, English teacher Corie Stewart said she would assign scenes for students to act out instead of a festival poster or booth.

English resource teacher Beth Rockwell would consider restoring the festival if more teachers participated in the planning. Currently, the English department is primarily responsible for planning. If teachers in all different subjects pitched in and incorporated the festival into their curriculum, it would become less of a chore and more of an enjoyable experience, Rockwell said.

The festival is a unique opportunity for all students to take a day and learn outside of the classroom. Ultimately, the interactive, interdisciplinary and enjoyable learning experiences that the Shakespeare Festival provides  are more than worth sacrificing a day of classroom instruction.

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