Shakespeare. Yea, or nonny-nonny-no?
Rolly Dollar has asked the question - based on recent the recent experience of his son - of whether Shakespeare is outdated and needs to be replaced in the classroom. As he himself mentions, it is a subject that comes up quite often, with many voices on each side of the argument.
Having done English Literature at ‘O’ and ‘A’ level, I’d have to say that I’d take Shakespeare any day over the likes of Milton or Chaucer. Even over ‘modern’ authors like Austen or the Brontes - even Dickens. Even over a lot of comtemporary authors. I agree though that Shakespeare can be hard to get used to when you’re first confronted with him; for me Shakespeare didn’t come alive until after reading a play in class - and getting the historical background to it - we then went and saw it performed. There is nothing to beat a theatrical performance of Hamlet or Macbeth.
And seeing the plays performed (or, better still, performing them yourself) is an important part of understanding them. They are, after all, plays - originally written to be performed, not read. When you marry the words to the actions, however minimalist the production may be in terms of set design, etc, you really get an emotional understanding of the material. OK, the odd word may be unfamiliar - I never knew what a ‘bodkin’ was until I read Hamlet - but the context makes understanding easier. I remember seeing Merchant of Venice in a Globe-style theatre that had no set dressing, with an audience full of 12 to 14 year old schoolkids, all of whom were totally enraptured by the performance, and not having any difficulty following the action.
The films that have been made from his work tend not to work so well for me, in comparison to a live performance. They often are very truncated (understandably so, some of the plays are very long which doesn’t work for movie audiences) and I’m not a big fan of the modernised versions, although I agree they can be a good way to give someone a ‘gentle’ introduction to Shakespeare. Even Branagh’s full-text film of Hamlet (which I love) is not as good as seeing it in a theatre with real live actors.
Shakespeare has stood the test of time; part of that is the language he uses (once you understand the basic structure, it opens the door for you and shows you its beauty) but the larger part is story. He’s one of the originals, forging a path for those that came after him. I think It would be a mistake to remove him from the curriculum entirely, but perhaps focusing on a selection of the more ‘pacy’ plays would be of use. Along with plenty of live performances.
Milestones
This week saw two milestones achieved.
The first was that the new Veganicity brochures finally went to the printers. They’ve been in development for several months and at various points through the process it has seemed like they’d never be finished. But, if it’s not right now it’s too late! Of course, now that’s done it means that the website needs updating, there’s a trade version to do, all sorts of things…
The second milestone was that “The Educational Worth of Formula Student” - my friend Paul’s thesis for his doctorate - also finally went to print. This has been dragging on longer than the Veganicity brochure, as we did the first round of final formatting back in March of this year. Since then, it’s gone back and forwards to his supervisors and had bits added and bits taken away. I’ve read the thing at least five or six times and, whilst it was interesting the first time, I’m glad to see the back of it now (although not half as glad as Paul is, I’m sure).
What’s been made obvious to me over the course of the work on the thesis is that if Sussex University is typical of universities in the UK these days, it’s a wonder anyone learns anything. Two supervisors have - at least as far as I can see - worked tirelessly to contradict each other throughout the course of this project, and when it finally gets to adjudication they both get contradicted! Doesn’t give you much hope for the future really.
Brief notes
1. You’ve got to feel sorry for Paul Robinson after last night’s England vs. Germany match. He got caught out by a cross that turned into a shot that turned into a goal and this morning he’s got David James leaping to his defence. That’s David James, possibly the worst goalkeeper the English national side have ever had.
2. Did you know an iMac can resurrect your CD’s? I’ve got an original (1995) copy of the Pulse double CD set by Pink Floyd (you know, the one that had the little flashing light in it) and some while ago the last three tracks of disc two became unplayable. No obvious damage to the disc - just wouldn’t play, in whatever machine I used. Just tried importing it into iTunes and it did it with no problems. What’s more, I’ve been able to use iTunes to make a new CD to replace the one that doesn’t work anymore. Just another reason to buy a Mac!
3. If you’re a woman of 40 or over and live or work in the New York Metropolitan area, head on over to Marianna’s blog; she’s looking for people to help her with a survey as part of her Masters degree. It’s all online and will only take about 10 minutes to complete. Tell your friends.
4. For all you environmentalists out there, check out Skimmer’s blog for 20 top tips for going greener. Some of them you’ll probably already know, but others will not be so obvious. And some of the facts and figures he presents will scare you. Seriously!
5. Eastbourne Borough FC remain unbeaten so far this season, throughout all the pre-season friendlies and the league matches they’ve played. Go Borough!
Formula Student 2
For a little background on the Formula Student project, check out my post from April.
I’ve just done a Google search for “Sussex Formula Student 2007″, as I wanted to see if I could find any details on how the Sussex University team are getting along; perhaps their webcam would be functioning, so we could watch the build, etc.
What I found out, though, is that my previous post on the subject comes up top of the list and there’s nothing anywhere to indicate what’s happening with the Sussex team at the moment.
If you’re part of the team and want to send me a link to a site where people can check out your progress, please do. If there isn’t a site and you’d like me to update people on your behalf, again let me know and I’ll be happy to do it.
The competition is drawing near and it would be great to find out how things are going.
Formula Student - not as successful as it could be?
I wanted to put a link here to the University of Sussex Formula Student webcam, but at the moment it appears not to be working; this could be because the UniSus Formula Student car is not working. Recent testing has proved to be problematic to say the least. (If the camera - or indeed the car - starts to work, I’ll update the post.)
But what is Formula Student I hear you ask (or at least I think I do - or perhaps the medication is wearing off). It’s the British equivalent of an American competition - Formula SAE- that aims to promote understanding of, and participation in, automotive engineering amongst university students, by getting them to build and then compete a single-seater racing car.
The premise of the competition is that the students are preparing a prototype car to present to a multinational car company. They have to design the car (within limitations laid down in the competition rules), build it, finance it and also present the car. The idea is that - as an elective project for engineering students - Formula Student will give participants the chance to put into practice the theory that they learn in their lectures.
My experience of Formula Student is third-hand; a friend of mine is a research student at Sussex, and is writing a thesis on the Educational Worth of Formula Student. A thesis which I’ve been dragged into as editor. In addition to this, in 2003 I went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where a number of the more successful teams - including that of Brunel University - were showing their cars and looking for sponsorship.
On the face of it, Formula Student seems like a good idea; as a non-engineering type of guy, I think I’d jump at the chance to be involved in a competition such as this. But in practice it seems that the competition suffers for several reasons.
First is timing; the competition takes place in July which is exam season. If you’re studying hard for your degree and you’re also involved in a non-credit project, which are you going to drop when time gets short?
Second is the fact that it is a non-credit, elective course. There is no incentive to complete the course, no tying it in with the curriculum, no credits gained towards the degree.
Third is the lack of support that some teams have to suffer with. Some universities - Bath, Leeds and Brunel have good reputations here - integrate Formula Student very well and the team has the support of academic and technical staff to get the car to the competition and make sure it does well when it gets there. Other universities do not have this support - whether because of a lack of resources or lack of interest from staff - and this indifference transmits itself to the team.
A number of papers on this subject have been submitted to the SAE: Integrating Formula SAE, Project Based Learning and Culture, and the just published Culture, Money and Space and are well worth checking out.
What I’d like to see is Formula Student made an integral part of the Engineering curriculum, with faculty committed to helping their students get through to the competition where they successfully complete all the events (are you listening Sussex?:-)). Until then, it’s really not worth the effort.
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