One of the most influential community resources for classroom collaboration I have found has been the hardworking and dedicated volunteers of the English-Speaking Union. If I am correct, not one of these wonderful people is under 60 years old. It all started when I began working with the annual Shakespeare Competition fifteen years ago. Teaching Shakespeare has always been my first love; I know that Shakespeare never fails to engage and provide students with an experience whereby they will never again be the same in their reading, thinking, or writing. Working with the Shakespeare competition brought me to new levels of what can be accomplished outside as well as inside the classroom.

in the end though, I have learned from these collaborations that it is not about winning. It is about believing in young people. My richest memories are the nights after school when students practice, when they help each other, argue about a character, go over lines, and think again and again about a single word, a single action. Students begin to see that the never ending relationship with genius, insight, and language begins when one becomes immersed in the world of a play, in the thought-web of words, words, words which maintain power beyond any particular place and time. We all share the knowledge that to really appreciate Shakespeare’s language and thought, one reading is not enough; years of reading are not enough; one insight into a character or play is not enough. So begins that life-long journey by feeling those words in one’s own mouth, or hearing them over and over again from a fellow student. In my literature classes I require that all students memorize and recite at least 15 lines of Shakespeare. For the first time this year I have fulfilled the dream of offering a Shakespeare class to non-honors students who feel that Shakespeare is too difficult for them. We were thrilled to find that 120 students signed up for the four classes taught this year. Our principal supported this class by offering to teach a class each semester.

The success of the students who have won our Shakespeare competition has been extraordinary. For example student Anne Heintz went on to the University of Arizona and directed a unique Hamlet in the planetarium; this year she received a Fulbright to work with a playwright in Australia. Yet Anne was not primarily a drama student; she was an English major. I am ever thankful to the local members of the ESU. They give all over to the young - the applause and the praise. They stand in the wings and have known all along that the students have the ear and the soul to catch those powerful words. These fellow teachers understand that it is the student who ultimately stands alone before those words; these adults believe in young people.