American schools teach Shakespeare because his works deliver benefits no other author can match: dense, complex language that builds reading stamina, universal themes that still mirror modern life, and interpretive challenges that sharpen critical thinking. The Bard of Avon remains a cornerstone of the high school English curriculum because these skills transfer directly to standardized tests, college coursework, and real-world communication.
Every year, millions of American teenagers crack open Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, or Hamlet and ask the same question: why are we still reading this? I have heard that question in classrooms, on Reddit threads, and from frustrated parents helping with homework. It is a fair question.
The short answer is that no other writer in the English language combines linguistic complexity, psychological depth, and cultural influence the way Shakespeare does. But the longer answer involves history, neuroscience, college admissions, and a few reasons that might surprise you.
In this guide, our team breaks down exactly why American schools still teach Shakespeare in 2026. We will cover the historical roots of this tradition, the academic benefits researchers have measured, the most common criticisms, and practical tips for students who find the language impenetrable.
Table of Contents
How Shakespeare Entered American Classrooms
Shakespeare did not always dominate American education. In fact, his path into the classroom was a slow process that took most of the 19th century.
The turning point came in 1837 with the publication of the McGuffey Readers. These wildly popular textbooks included excerpts from Shakespeare alongside other literary selections. For the first time, Shakespeare became standard reading material for American schoolchildren rather than something reserved for the stage.
Before this period, Shakespeare was primarily performed, not studied. The Folger Shakespeare Library’s research on the history of Shakespeare in schools shows that students initially read his plays aloud as elocution exercises, focusing on delivery and rhetoric rather than literary analysis. They were learning to speak well, not to analyze text.
By the end of the 19th century, that approach shifted. Schools began treating Shakespeare as literature, dissecting his language, themes, and characters the way students might study a novel. This shift from performance to text-based study set the foundation for how Shakespeare is taught today.
The 20th century cemented the tradition. As English departments standardized their curricula, Shakespeare became a non-negotiable requirement. College entrance exams expected familiarity with his works. Teacher training programs included Shakespeare pedagogy. The result is a curriculum where, more than a century later, every American high school student encounters Shakespeare at least once.
Why Do American Schools Still Teach Shakespeare: The Core Reasons
If you are wondering why do American schools still teach Shakespeare, the answer comes down to five distinct benefits that his works uniquely provide.
Language development: Shakespeare invented or popularized over 1,700 words and phrases that are now standard English, forcing students to grapple with linguistic complexity that builds reading comprehension skills.
Universal themes: His plays explore love, power, ambition, jealousy, and identity, the same forces driving human behavior today.
Critical thinking: Moral ambiguity and complex characters demand interpretive analysis, teaching students to form and defend opinions.
College and exam preparation: AP English Literature, SAT reading comprehension, and college humanities courses all reward the analytical skills Shakespeare develops.
Cultural literacy: Shakespeare’s influence saturates modern literature, film, politics, and everyday language, making his works a shared reference point in educated society.
Each of these reasons deserves a closer look, so let us break them down.
Language Development: Early Modern English Builds Academic Resilience
Shakespeare’s language is difficult. That difficulty is not a flaw, it is the entire point.
His works are written in Early Modern English, the transitional form of the language used roughly between 1500 and 1700. It is close enough to modern English to be readable, but far enough away to demand real effort. Students encounter unfamiliar vocabulary, inverted syntax, and grammatical constructions that do not follow modern rules.
One of Shakespeare’s signature techniques is the functional shift, where he uses a word as a different part of speech than expected. He might turn a noun into a verb or an adjective into an adverb. This forces the reader’s brain to pause, reassess, and figure out the intended meaning from context.
That cognitive effort is exactly what builds academic resilience. When students push through difficult passages, they develop the stamina and analytical habits needed for college-level reading. The Aralia education research team describes this as building “academic resilience,” a skill that transfers to every subject.
The language benefits go beyond resilience. Shakespeare introduced thousands of words and phrases that are now everyday English. Expressions like “break the ice,” “wild goose chase,” “heart on my sleeve,” and “love is blind” all come directly from his plays. When students study Shakespeare, they are learning the roots of the language they already speak.
Research from the University of Liverpool found something even more compelling. When participants read Shakespeare’s functional shifts, brain scans showed a surge of activity in regions associated with insight and problem-solving. The unusual grammar literally forces the brain to work harder, and that extra effort produces a measurable neurological response.
Universal Themes: Why Shakespeare Still Connects With Students
Shakespeare’s plays endure because they are about things that never stop mattering. Love. Power. Ambition. Betrayal. Identity. Grief. These forces shape every human life, regardless of the century.
Romeo and Juliet remains the most commonly taught Shakespeare play in American high schools, and the reason is obvious. Teenagers understand passionate, forbidden love. They understand family conflict. They understand the feeling of being trapped between what they want and what the adults around them demand. The play speaks directly to the adolescent experience.
Macbeth tackles unchecked ambition and the corrupting pull of power. Students see parallels in politics, corporate scandals, and their own temptation to cut corners for success. The play’s psychological unraveling of its title character offers a case study in how one bad decision cascades into catastrophe.
Hamlet dives into grief, indecision, and the question of what makes life worth living. A teenager processing a loss or struggling with big existential questions finds a mirror in Hamlet’s famous soliloquies. The play does not offer easy answers, which is precisely what makes it worth studying.
The NJEA, New Jersey’s largest education association, argues that character relatability is one of the strongest reasons Shakespeare belongs in schools. Students see themselves in Shakespeare’s characters because human nature has not changed. Jealousy still destroys relationships the way it destroyed Othello. Political ambition still corrupts the way it consumed Richard III.
These are not dusty academic themes. They are alive in every news cycle, every social media drama, every personal conflict a student navigates.
Critical Thinking and Analytical Skills
Shakespeare rarely tells you what to think. His plays are layered with ambiguity, conflicting motivations, and moral gray areas that demand interpretation.
Was Hamlet genuinely mad, or was he performing? Is Shylock a villain or a victim? Does Macbeth deserve sympathy given the pressure from Lady Macbeth and the witches? These questions have no single correct answer. Students must gather evidence, weigh competing interpretations, and defend their conclusions with textual support.
This is the essence of critical thinking. It is the skill of looking at complex information, identifying patterns, forming a judgment, and articulating reasoning. No standardized test directly measures “Shakespeare comprehension,” but the analytical muscles built through studying his works show up everywhere.
When a student learns to write an essay arguing whether Brutus was justified in killing Caesar, they are practicing the same evidence-based reasoning they will need in college seminars, professional reports, and civic life. The ability to hold competing ideas in tension and reach a defensible conclusion is a foundational academic skill.
Teachers consistently report that Shakespeare assignments produce some of the most sophisticated student writing of the year. The complexity of the source material pushes students beyond surface-level summary into genuine analysis.
Exam and College Preparation
The practical argument for Shakespeare is straightforward: it helps students get into college and succeed once they arrive.
The Common Core State Standards, adopted by most US states, explicitly require students to analyze complex literary texts. Shakespeare’s works are the gold standard for textual complexity. They satisfy the requirement for students to engage with “foundational works of American and world literature.”
AP English Literature, taken by over 400,000 students annually, assumes familiarity with Shakespeare. The exam frequently includes passages from his plays in the free-response section. Students who have studied Shakespeare intensively enter the exam with a significant advantage.
SAT and ACT reading comprehension sections reward the close-reading skills that Shakespeare develops. The dense, allusive style of his writing trains students to parse difficult prose under time pressure, exactly the skill these tests measure.
Elite preparatory schools like Phillips Academy Andover and the Lawrenceville School make Shakespeare a centerpiece of their English curricula. Their graduates arrive at top universities already comfortable with the level of textual analysis that college humanities courses demand.
Even beyond admissions, the skills translate. College professors expect students to read challenging material, form independent interpretations, and discuss them intelligently. Shakespeare study builds exactly those capabilities.
The Neuroscience: What Shakespeare Does to Your Brain
Modern brain research has started to confirm what English teachers have argued for decades: reading Shakespeare makes your brain work differently.
The University of Liverpool study, led by Professor Philip Davis, used EEG monitoring to track brain activity while participants read Shakespeare. When readers encountered a functional shift, a word used in an unexpected grammatical way, their brains showed a spike in electrical activity. This response occurred in the same brain regions associated with insight and sudden understanding.
The researchers concluded that Shakespeare’s linguistic techniques do more than communicate ideas. They actively rewire how the brain processes language. The slight disruption of normal grammar forces the brain to generate new neural pathways, essentially giving it a workout.
Even more striking is the Ohio State University research on the Hunter Heartbeat Method. This program, developed by Kelly Hunter, uses Shakespeare’s plays in drama therapy for children on the autism spectrum. The method focuses on the rhythm and emotional content of Shakespeare’s language to help autistic children develop social skills and emotional recognition.
A study conducted at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center found that children with autism who participated in the Shakespeare-based program showed measurable improvements in social interaction and communication. The predictable rhythms of iambic pentameter provided a structure that helped these children process and express emotions.
The Royal Shakespeare Company has conducted related research on the therapeutic benefits of performing Shakespeare. Their findings suggest that embodied engagement with the plays, through acting and movement, enhances emotional development and social-emotional learning for students of all neurotypes.
Addressing the Critics: Is Shakespeare Still Relevant?
The case for Shakespeare is not unanimous. A growing chorus of educators, students, and cultural critics question whether his works deserve their dominant place in the curriculum.
The most common criticism is that the curriculum is too Eurocentric. Shakespeare is a dead white man from 16th-century England, and his presence in American classrooms crowds out diverse voices. Why not teach more works by women, people of color, and non-Western authors?
This is a legitimate concern. The best English programs address it not by removing Shakespeare but by teaching him alongside diverse authors. Shakespeare can coexist with Toni Morrison, Junot Diaz, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The goal is a richer curriculum, not a narrower one.
The second criticism is practical. Students find the language impenetrable, and teachers sometimes struggle to make it engaging. Reddit forums are full of teenagers who feel they are reading Shakespeare just to check a box. When the relevance is not clear, students disengage.
The solution here is not to abandon Shakespeare but to teach him differently. Performance-based learning, where students act out scenes rather than passively reading them, consistently produces higher engagement. Students who perform Shakespeare understand it better and enjoy it more.
The third criticism comes from those who argue Shakespeare is simply outdated. His world of kings, queens, and duels feels distant from modern American life. But this argument misunderstands what makes literature valuable. The setting is a vehicle for exploring human truths. The specifics change, the themes do not.
Our team takes the position that these criticisms strengthen the case for Shakespeare, not weaken it. They push educators to teach with purpose, connect the material to students’ lives, and build curricula that reflect the full range of human experience.
How to Read Shakespeare: Practical Tips for Students
If you are a student dreading your next Shakespeare unit, or a teacher looking for ways to make the material click, here is a practical approach that works.
Step 1: Read a Summary First
Before you read a single line of dialogue, read a brief plot summary. Knowing what happens removes the anxiety of trying to follow the story and the language simultaneously. You can focus on how the play says what it says, not just what happens.
Step 2: Read Aloud
Shakespeare wrote plays, not novels. His words were designed to be spoken. Reading silently strips away the rhythm, emotion, and intent that give the language meaning. Read the lines aloud, even if you feel silly doing it. You will understand dramatically more.
Step 3: Use Side-by-Side Translations
No Fear Shakespeare and similar resources provide modern English translations next to the original text. Use them. Read the modern version first for comprehension, then read the original for the beauty and complexity. Over time, you will need the translations less and less.
Step 4: Watch a Performance
Because Shakespeare wrote for the stage, watching a production brings instant clarity. Film adaptations, stage recordings, and even modern retellings like West Side Story (based on Romeo and Juliet) or 10 Things I Hate About You (based on The Taming of the Shrew) help you see the story come alive.
Step 5: Focus on the Big Questions
Do not get bogged down in every unfamiliar word. Instead, ask yourself the big questions the play raises. What does this character want? What is standing in their way? What does this story say about human nature? Those questions are where the real learning happens.
Step 6: Connect It to Your Life
The best way to make Shakespeare relevant is to find the personal connection. Have you ever felt what Romeo feels? Have you seen ambition destroy someone the way it destroyed Macbeth? Drawing those parallels transforms Shakespeare from an assignment into a mirror.
FAQs
Was Shakespeare LGBTQ?
Scholars have long debated Shakespeare’s sexuality based on the homoerotic themes in his sonnets, particularly the sequence addressed to a young man known as the Fair Youth. The sonnets express passionate love and desire that many readers interpret as romantic or sexual. However, there is no definitive historical proof of Shakespeare’s sexual identity, and the conventions of Elizabethan friendship poetry complicate interpretation. Most scholars agree the sonnets show deep emotional and possibly romantic attachment to a male recipient, but Shakespeare also married Anne Hathaway and had three children. The honest answer is that Shakespeare’s sexuality remains an open question that scholars continue to explore.
Why is Shakespeare taught in America and not just in England?
Shakespeare is taught in America because his works shaped the English language itself, and American education is built on English literary traditions. American schools adopted Shakespeare through 19th-century textbooks like the McGuffey Readers, and he became a fixture of the English curriculum because his plays develop language skills, critical thinking, and cultural literacy. His works are taught not just in England and America but in schools worldwide, making him one of the most globally studied authors in history.
Why are Romeo and Juliet still taught in schools?
Romeo and Juliet remains the most-taught Shakespeare play in American high schools because its themes directly mirror the adolescent experience. Teenagers understand passionate love, family conflict, rebellion against authority, and the intensity of first relationships. The play is also linguistically accessible compared to Shakespeare’s later tragedies, making it an ideal entry point for students encountering Early Modern English for the first time.
What are the disadvantages of studying Shakespeare?
The main disadvantages of studying Shakespeare include the significant language barrier that frustrates students, the risk of Eurocentric curricula crowding out diverse voices, and the potential for shallow teaching methods that reduce rich plays to rote memorization. Critics also argue that overemphasizing one author limits students’ exposure to the full range of world literature. These concerns are valid, but most educators address them by pairing Shakespeare with diverse authors and using performance-based teaching methods.
Why is Shakespeare not relevant today?
Some argue Shakespeare is not relevant today because his plays depict an aristocratic world of kings and nobles far removed from modern democratic life, and his archaic language creates a barrier that turns students off. However, this view overlooks that Shakespeare’s themes of love, power, ambition, jealousy, and identity are universal and timeless. His plays are constantly adapted into modern films, novels, and cultural references, proving their ongoing relevance. The works endure precisely because the human experiences they describe have not changed.
Should Romeo and Juliet be taught in schools?
Yes, Romeo and Juliet should be taught in schools because it develops critical reading skills, introduces students to complex literary analysis, and addresses themes that resonate with teenagers. The play also provides an accessible entry point into Shakespeare’s language and dramatic structure. Educators who teach it effectively, using performance and modern connections, consistently report high student engagement and meaningful learning outcomes.
Conclusion
So why do American schools still teach Shakespeare? Because no other author offers the same combination of linguistic complexity, psychological depth, universal themes, and analytical challenge. His works build reading stamina, sharpen critical thinking, prepare students for college and standardized tests, and, as neuroscience research now confirms, actively reshape how the brain processes language.
The criticisms are real and worth taking seriously. A curriculum that teaches only Shakespeare is too narrow. But the solution is to broaden the curriculum, not to abandon an author whose works have shaped English literature for over four centuries.
If you are a student, try the practical reading tips above and give the plays a genuine chance. If you are a teacher, lean into performance, modern connections, and diverse pairings. Shakespeare rewards the effort you put in, and the skills you gain last well beyond the classroom.