Joanne Jacobs notes a report that in Atlanta, students "on track" for college study Shakespeare, but without all that annoying language that clutters up his plays. From the original news story:

Et tu, Brute?

Not anymore.

"And you too, Brutus?" is what students read in a new genre of study guides that modernize the Elizabethan English found in "Julius Caesar" and other plays by William Shakespeare.

These guides move beyond the plot summaries found in other study aides by providing line-by-line translations in modern-day English.

Of course, the "educators" are quick to point out they're not doing anything wrong here:

"We're not dumbing down lessons for these students," Kollias said. "We are giving them tools that allow them to do the same work as everyone else."

Er - okay. And so we study Shakespeare for the plot, and not for the incredible way in which he mastered writing and managed to write his plays in blank verse? I have to say that I found many of Shakespeare's plays boring as a teenager (yet another example of how we assume "classic" literature means "just right for kids") but I also think the dry presentation might have had something to do with it. Watch Kenneth Branagh's Henry V once, and you'll never think of Shakespeare the same way . . .

Note: The author wastes a considerable amount of time writing about a variety of things over at Walloworld, where this post originally appeared.