In his plays, Shakespeare reveals a double view of life by repeatedly juxtaposing a representation of the comic spirit with the tragic protagonist. In the idiom of Shakespeare's world, heroic characters often embarrass or destroy themselves by confusing appearance with reality. Then, the comic characters or "mad men," functioning as…

Presents strategies to help teachers cope with personal tragedy. The workplace offers a valuable social network for sharing with colleagues, administrators, and students. Teachers may find the constant schoolday demands leave little time for worry. Specific coping strategies include asking for help, temporarily changing the curriculum, and…

Jeff Weise, the 16 year old from Red Lake, Minnesota, who in March 2005 killed five students and a teacher at his high school (as well as his grandfather, his grandfather's companion, and himself) bears a striking resemblance to more than two dozen teens who since 1996 have gone on shooting rampages in schools across the country. They, like Jeff,…

THE STUDENT PACKET FOR GRADE 10 OF THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM BEGINS WITH FOUR UNITS ON LITERATURE, EACH STRESSING AN ASPECT OF MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD. THROUGH A STUDY OF THE LITERATURE OF SEVERAL CULTURES, WRITTEN AT VARIOUS TIMES, STUDENTS FIRST CONSIDER "MAN AND NATURE, MAN'S PICTURE OF NATURE." THE SECOND UNIT, "MAN…

In this book designed for the high school drama teacher, several commonly-taught plays are used to illustrate (1) ways to use the adolescents' experience with TV to increase their appreciation of other forms of drama, (2) practical means for removing some of the barriers to understanding plays and producing an active response to the world of the…

Dr. Jon Quistgaard, president of Bemidji State University (BSU), is unhappy with the way the national media has portrayed the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota, the nearby city of Bemidji and American Indian life in general. That such coverage is even a matter of discussion is the result of a tragedy: On March 21, Jeffrey Weise, a…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 31 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) American drama between the world wars; (2) an emotion theory of stage fright; (3) the female androgyne in tragic drama; (4) creating and directing a musical…

Comedy is the middle ground upon which the absurd and the serious meet. Concerned with illuminating pain, human imperfection, and man's failure to measure up to his own or the world's concept of perfection, comedy provides "an escape, not from truth but from despair." If tragedy says that some ideals are worth dying for, comedy asserts…

This booklet addresses itself to the problem of whether Greek tragedy can be produced today in schools as a vital theatrical experience. The main thesis of the first of two articles points out that while a producer's first concern must be to communicate the context and spirit of a particular drama to a modern audience, he must also bring out the…

Looks at Shakespeare's tragedy through the eyes and words of an English teacher's secondary school students. (NKA)

This book, for grades 9-12, contains a wealth of ideas and practical activities for studying Shakespeare's "Hamlet." The first section, "Revenge Tragedy," provides background materials to help prepare students to read "Hamlet," including a discussion of revenge tragedies, comparisons to other plays from the period,…

In a 1974 essay entitled "Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire," Rabbi Irving Greenberg offered the "working principle"--no statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that would not be credible in the presence of burning children--in response to Christian silence during the Holocaust and as a kind of moral plumb line by which post-Shoah…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles are as follows: (1) Physical and Oral Behaviors of the Solo Interpretive Performer; (2) Music in English Children's Drama; (3) Playwriting in the Maritime Provinces: 1845-1903; (4) Dance in Denver's Pioneer Theatres:…

THE LITERATURE PROGRAM OF THE GRADE 10 NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM EMPHASIZES MAN'S CONCEPTION OF THE WORLD--HIS PICTURE OF NATURE, OF SOCIETY, AND OF MORAL LAW--AND HOW THESE THREE CONCEPTS ARE PRESENTED IN LITERATURE. UNITS COVER THE FOLLOWING TOPICS--(1) "MAN'S PICTURE OF NATURE," (2) "THE LEADER AND THE GROUP," (3)…

The Truman Capote nonfiction novel, "In Cold Blood," which reflects for adolescents the immediacy of the real world, illuminates (1) social issues--capital punishment, environmental influence, and the gap between the "haves" and "have-nots," (2) moral issues--the complexity of man's nature, the responsibility of one…