The Perennial HSC Debate

Last week Howard, in his usual approach to dealing with adverse publicity (the AWB scandal), took aim at teachers, schools and the 'gobbledygook' they are now learning for HSC English. Being the rabid Howard-hater that I am, I chose to ignore all his pronouncements on the issue, as I figure: He really has no idea. The media however, again as usual, took up his crusade with gusto, and I heard a very interesting interview on 702 Sydney between Adam Spencer and Dame Leonie Kramer, Emeritus Professor of Australian Literature at the University of Sydney. The SMH also had an interesting article by Adele Horin in Saturday's edition.
I found it quite surprising that Dame Kramer and Howard actually agreed with each other - the crux of her argument was that studying Shakespeare through the filter of every-day relevance, subtracted from the intrinsic value of his plays. The example that has been nominated as being the pinnacle of politically-correctness in English education, is the students at SCEGGS having to analyse King Lear from both a Marxist and Feminist perspective. The nay-sayers also dislike the use of other media, such as film and blogs, as an alternative to traditional written texts.
Now as someone who loves and adores books, and devours the written word in all it's myriad forms, I actually don't have a problem with the new English curriculum. As I see it, the purpose of the HSC English course is to enable students to both understand and apply the English language to their lives... It is not just an exercise in Literature Appreciation. And that seems to be the focus of the Kramer, Howard et al. They want English to be studied as it was in the 50s - when Shakespeare was God - but how much did the kids then HATE Shakespeare? Did they ever read him again? I doubt it. Learning to appreciate the intricacies of English as a language improves the appreciation of literature, not vice versa.
And as a result of not exercising my own knowledge of our beautiful language enough recently, I'm having real trouble expressing myself articulately... And no amount of Shakespeare's going to fix it...