I couldn't agree more that so many people have been put off Shakespeare by the way they were taught at school, and it's a great pity. This may sound strange, but the problem is that Shakespeare is more often than not taught by *English* teachers, who like to start with the printed page and work through the book from beginning to end.

I did enjoy Shakespeare at school, "did" Hamlet and Henry IV for A Level, and saw some excellent productions. We read round the class to hear it spoken - but it was only later, when I started *acting* Shakespeare that I discovered how wonderful these plays are.

I reckon that's the best springboard to really enjoying Shakespeare's plays - acting them: becoming the people in the situations presented in the plays, discovering why they are behaving the way they do, seeing how similar/different they are to yourself or people you know. Learning about yourself, others, life through the whole experience.

You may have guessed by now: I teach drama ! The way in to Shakespeare, I think, is through the characters and situations - improvising, acting them out, relating them to the student's own experience - and the sheer enjoyment of those wonderful *sounds* of the "strange" language - before EVER seeing any of it in print, or even mentioning that any of this is leading up to a Shakespeare play at all !

The younger this can be done, the better ! (Well before the senior school and the set texts for exams) Then, when the time comes for exams, the children have associated Shakespeare with *fun*: being a witch and her "familiar"; cooking up fantastic potions; hurling wonderful abuse at each other as Montagus and Capulets "I bite my thumb at you, Sir! "; rallying their troops for a big battle. They will also have learned about loyalty, friendship, betrayal of trust, the consequences of seeking revenge, greed, ambition.... you name it, all life is there. Used properly, the characters and situations in Shakespeare can be a wonderful teaching tool.

Taught in this way, Shakespeare makes fantastic lessons for the 7 to 11 age-group. He has the perfect recipe for everything children of this age love: ghosts, witches, armies, fights, words that are fun to say for the sheer sound they make, and, most beloved of all (by them and me): lavatorial humour !

- jeanie