"What words come to mind when I say 'William Shakespeare'?" I asked the group of 17- and 18-year-old Singaporean high school students sitting in front of me. "Just say whatever comes to mind," I added. "There are no wrong answers."
"Timeless," one boy offered. "Profound," said another. Then the group fell silent.
"Great," I said. "Shakespeare's plays are definitely timeless and profound." Almost in unison, the students leaned over their desks to write 'timeless' and 'profound' in their notebooks. (Several of them doubtless were tempted to write 'boring' as well--at this point in the talk, I certainly would have been.)
"But there is one word I never hear," I continued. "And it's always the first word that pops into my head when I think of Shakespeare." I turned on my slideshow and flipped to the first slide. Projected onto the screen, in bold capital letters and surrounded with a sparkling star animation I found online, was a single word: "SEX!"
A momentary hush fell over the students, and then they started to laugh. From the back of the auditorium, I even heard a few amused cheers and claps. The students' teacher, smiling, nodded in approval.
"I think Shakespeare is the sexiest writer in the world," I said. "So let's talk about sex." In all of the schools I visited around the country, not a single teacher demanded that I omit the sexier parts of my Shakespeare lecture in favor of pure iambic pentameter. In fact, many of them invited me to come back the following year. Welcome to the new Singapore. Full story...
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"Timeless," one boy offered. "Profound," said another. Then the group fell silent.
"Great," I said. "Shakespeare's plays are definitely timeless and profound." Almost in unison, the students leaned over their desks to write 'timeless' and 'profound' in their notebooks. (Several of them doubtless were tempted to write 'boring' as well--at this point in the talk, I certainly would have been.)
"But there is one word I never hear," I continued. "And it's always the first word that pops into my head when I think of Shakespeare." I turned on my slideshow and flipped to the first slide. Projected onto the screen, in bold capital letters and surrounded with a sparkling star animation I found online, was a single word: "SEX!"
A momentary hush fell over the students, and then they started to laugh. From the back of the auditorium, I even heard a few amused cheers and claps. The students' teacher, smiling, nodded in approval.
"I think Shakespeare is the sexiest writer in the world," I said. "So let's talk about sex." In all of the schools I visited around the country, not a single teacher demanded that I omit the sexier parts of my Shakespeare lecture in favor of pure iambic pentameter. In fact, many of them invited me to come back the following year. Welcome to the new Singapore. Full story...
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