As one who frequently laments the state of modern education, it hardly comes as a surprise when I see some new example of political correctness run amok there. One of the latest examples: an effort to sacrifice on the altar of political correctness one of the literary greats of the Western tradition, William Shakespeare. 

Dana Dusbiber, an English teacher at the largest inner-city high school in Sacramento, wants to stop teaching  Shakespeare all together. Why? Because he’s white, and because he’s a man. As she wrote, “What I worry about is that as long as we continue to cling to ONE (white) MAN’S view of life as he lived it so long ago, we (perhaps unwittingly) promote the notion that other cultural perspectives are less important.”

She acts as though, by teaching the work of one white man, she will somehow be prevented from teaching the work of any women or writers of color. (Strictly speaking, “white” people are also people of color, but that’s a discussion for another day). This, of course, is simply not true.

Shakespeare still matters, even if it’s not politically correct to say so. In 1989, a production of Othello staged in apartheid South Africa spoke to black and white audience members. In 2005, a production of Love’s Labour Lost in Afghanistan had men and women performing together, at great personal risk, for the first time in decades. In the USSR, Hamlet was a popular tale of how an oppressive state can hurt the individual.

So it’s not just western white men who have studied, and benefitted from, the work of Shakespeare. Four hundred years after his works were first performed, Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into 75 languages (including Klingon, so maybe it’s also taught in space) proving that it has transcended geographical boundaries to become part of a shared global heritage, something that unites us across the world. However, in these days of hypersensitivity, there are teachers willing to throw away 400 years of culture rather than expose kids to another dead white male.

In a political and economic climate such as this, parents and communities will need to take up a lot of slack in education. Shakespeare’s works can be purchased or checked out from the library, found for free online, and viewed through film adaptations, some also available for free online. Also, a new big budget Macbeth, starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, is in the offing, offering another opportunity to introduce a new generation to the bard. This in addition to the countless community theatre stagings of Shakespeare put on every around the world. 

There’s even a new option now available in stores that you might actually get your pre-teens to read — OMG Shakespeare, a series of books that tells Shakespeare’s classic tales … in emoji-laden text messages. Cringe if you must, but stay with me. Yes, your tweens are free to choose from YOLO Juliet, Srsly Hamlet, Macbeth #Killingit and A Midsummer Night #nofilter. While these have been largely derided as literary treason, they can serve the important role of inviting young people into the international conversation about these ubiquitous tales and beckoning them toward the original works themselves. If they’re not going to be taught Shakespeare in school, books like these might be the Trojan Horse needed to introduce kids to the bard in their free time.

Sorry, Ms. Dusbiber. The introductions might change with the times, but Shakespeare is not going, and should not go, anywhere.