Many people are skeptical about getting children to read Shakespeare. Some people say: Is Shakespeare outdated?It is also said: What is the use of reading Shakespeare?It's better to have that time than to do a few math problems.
I don't agree with either of these ideas. There are two reasons: First, although Shakespeare's era has passed for a long time, as long as the problems facing mankind have not changed, Shakespeare's works will not be outdated, such as good and evil, and beauty and ug......liness
Second, reading Shakespeare's works can cultivate children's empathy, Shakespeare's works portray characters of different levels in three parts, when children can independently perceive the joys, sorrows and sorrows of the characters, he will become a human person, which is the gift of reading instead of experience to us. This is something that is impossible to do.
Speaking of which, I think many people will have another question: children are so young, will it be too early to read Shakespeare?Do you understand?
What I want to say is not to underestimate the potential of children, and not to underestimate the power of books. It was inspired by the fact that I took my children to read Shakespeare's Tales from the series of great authors for children.
This is one of the masterpieces of the British essayist Charles Lamb and his sister Mary Lamb who rewrote the popular reading of famous books. The book is less than 400 pages long, and some would say it's incomplete, but I would say it's the version that a child should see.
Take my four-year-old daughter and I reading together as an example. Because this book is written for young readers, I can only read it to my daughter, and of course there will be elements of my simplification, but with this book I have the confidence to "not be out of shape".
In order, the first story I told her was "The Tempest", and the names of the characters in the book, such as Prospero and Miranda, should be as follows the original book as much as possible, which is very beneficial for the child to read the more complete version on his own in the future.
The author rewrote the story in 20 pages, and I spent three days telling my daughter what I had simplified.
There were some stumbles in the process of studying, for example, most of the names of the daughters could not remember, so I basically replaced them with the titles of father, daughter, spirit, and prince, but I was surprised that my daughter was able to remember the names of Ariel and her daughter Miranda from the words I occasionally mentioned by their full names, and described them as "beautiful and kind".
After three days, the daughter was able to "describe" the story herself: the father and daughter were on a small island, and there was a spirit, and the bad guys who had bullied them came, and they forgave the bad guys and went home from the island together.
This book "Shakespeare's Plays and Stories" has made me more confident in taking my children to read famous books. I wonder if we think that maybe we think that children don't understand because they don't receive what we want to inculcate, when in fact, children have acquired the knowledge they want, and that gain is even more valuable.