In Florida schools will read Shakespeare’s works in shorthand because of a new law

Students of schools in Hillsborough County in the U.S. state of Florida will be allowed to read only excerpts from the works of British classic William Shakespeare in classes in connection with the new law on gender education.

The school program is constantly updated and revised during the school year in order to bring it in line with educational standards and current state legislation,” the agency quotes an excerpt from the document. The new law mandates restricting the use of educational materials that may “contain pornography or exhaustive descriptions of sexual behavior.”

The decision to restrict the reading of Shakespeare’s works was made because of the content of “hints and puns” in them, the discussion of which may lead to a violation of the law. The authorities also believe that in the future this measure will allow to diversify the list of literature offered to read to schoolchildren.

It is noted that the complete exclusion of the works of the British writer from the school program is out of the question. “First of all, we have not excluded Shakespeare from the secondary school curriculum. Pupils will still have the books at their disposal to read passages from them in lessons,” the statement said.

The law, which bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten and elementary schools, was passed in 2022 by the Republican-controlled Florida legislature with the support of Governor Ron Desantis, who is seeking the nomination to run for president of the United States in 2024. The Walt Disney World Company opposed the law, for which Desantis stripped it of its special privileges and self-governance status in February of this year.

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