Article: BRIGHTENING THE BARD

Martin F. Nolan is editor of the Globe's editorial page. The ripest scandal of the week was not in Washington but in the nation's classrooms. A survey of public and private schools showed that Shakespeare doesn't stand a chance.

The stats say that 84 percent of the schools teach "Romeo and Juliet," but we know that chalky pedagogues, as zealously as Juliet's nurse, conceal the bawdy passages from adolescents. First impressions are lasting; a chaste romance means that "Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books / But love from love, toward school with heavy looks."

Worse yet, 81 percent of schools force "Macbeth" down teen-age throats. Real cheerful stuff. A dour, ...

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