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Fassbender out of touch...school children need skills not Macbeth

posted 9 years ago by LenaAFoster
48 replies | jump to latest

Fassbender wants to inspire school children to study Macbeth. However millions of school children in America have been forced to study gazillions of hours of Macbeth and Shakespeare which is basically useless education.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/michael-fassbender-hopes-new-movie-6525417

I'm not just talking about the fact that there are thousands of other great works of literature out there...

For someone like Fassbender, who lives off of taxpayer funded refundable film tax credits, to sustain his very wealthy living, that's just great that he's willing to kick back and make a life off of useless poetry and prose like Shakespeare from the many hundreds of years ago play circuit, But for children, coming from poverty and disadvantaged homes and not flitting from TIFF to Venice Film Festival to Cannes to Oscar year to year with intermittent vacations in Bali, ie,, children who have a limited amount of resources and hours in the school system until they are let loose upon the world, they should be spending their time learning skills that can help them such as credit card management, learning how to get jobs, managing their lives, and relationships.

Once again, as a fluffy out of touch parasite actor (living off of Hollywood taxpayer refundable film tax credits as does the entire film industry), he's out and about in his film promotion circuit making dumb comments like every other actor.

They (actors, directors, producers, etc) can certainly do this because they are funded by billions of dollars of taxpayer money that should be going to other things like education poverty and the other things that people in the world need who don't get millions of dollars of salary for playing make believe on film television and theater.

Yeah...the week before school starts, we are flooded at grocery stores with "please donate school supplies to kids in poverty" campaigns. Anyone else get that where they live??? Well, that's because in, for instance, New York they GIFT Hollywood producers checks that total around $420 million a year. At least Jindal made a step in the right direction capping Louisiana's tax corporate welfare st $180 million...which is still ridiculous given the state has a $1.3 billion deficit. The producers are mad and are suing???? Really??? On constitutional grounds??

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420655/jindal-angers-hollywood-producers-axing-louisianas-film-tax-credits-jon-hartley

Wow! Hollywood actually thinks it has a constitutional right to fleece cash strapped middle class Americans and commit highway robbery from programs to the poor. Go figure...

Looks like Florida wised up.this year and slowed the parasites down too...

http://penderedgroup.com/florida-stops-funding-film-incentives-georgia-poised-to-benefit/

Notice in the Louisiana article how it says Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie sold their house in Louisiana in response...wait! Come back Bolie!!! We thought you just loved cajuns and the house wasn't just a slick PR move because you were sponging off of free taxpayer money as multi multi millionaires...

It never ceases to amaze me how actors operate...that's right...money grows on trees...let's all waste our years studying Shakespeare in school instead of useful skills...so when the state comes to take the children because we are homeless, we can get jobs as Shakespearean stage actors to prove to the state we can support our kids to get them out of foster care...(sarcasm intended)..

I'm sure there is a HUGE market for that in the land that does not exisist...

Galena

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] Like_Oh_Sure 9 years ago

The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction 

Furious_Styles77 "why are you trolling this board? please get a life"

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Like_Oh_Sure 9 years ago

Be all my sins remembered 

Furious_Styles77 "why are you trolling this board? please get a life"

[–] pc_buttspasm 9 years ago

Political rant about taxation aside, why exactly do you think it isn't valuable for students to learn about great literature?

[–] MrX2848 9 years ago

The OP is probably one of those students who whined about having to take Algebra: "When will we use this in the REAL WORLD!?!"

Seriously, though, there's no reason. The OP is just a troll who happens to be particularly obsessed with hating on Michael Fassbender and everything he's involved in.

I find Oscar Bait infinitely more interesting than ticket bait

[–] LenaAFoster 9 years ago

Are you simple?

Why on Earth would I think algebra is useless? What on Earth does algebra have to do with focusing on one particular playwright from hundreds and hundreds of years ago and wasting days and weeks and potentially semesters of one's youth on that particular playwright?

I spent an entire year of high school wasting time studying Shakespeare as mandatory curriculum. Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet...Othello...blah blah blah....memorization quizzes...analysis tests. Then for Friday treats, tv viewing of movies of Shakespeare plays...

Then, electives...etymology...the study of the roots of words...sociology...the study of social structure... Accounting...typing...electives...logic...an elective...Courses that I use EVERYDAY...even years later...mere electives in school...etymology...the best one...understanding words just by knowing roots of words...invaluable skill...math..logic...the same...Shakespeare...useless...to anything...other than impressing small groups of pretentious snobs at art gallery wine and cheese parties...

Meanwhile...children grow up to be idiots...you appear to be a testament to that my friend..they can't manage money, handle relationships, etc...read...and, did they actually remember anything from hours of forced memorization and regurgitation to an arty farty English teacher whose career is secure as a Shakespeare pimp??? Doubtful...I suspect most were too worried about whether mama's EBT card had enough money to buy the weeks milk for the family to worry about what exactly Romeo was trying to say to Juliet in that impossible to understand prose...

And yes...the principles of Algebra and logic helped me in law school...Shakespeare did not....Olde English is frowned upon as is legalese ding dong....

Galena

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] Like_Oh_Sure 9 years ago

Not bad...not bad at all 



Furious_Styles77 "why are you trolling this board? please get a life"

[–] pc_buttspasm 9 years ago

You never answered my question at all, choosing instead to insult the person who replied directly to my comment. I asked, "why exactly do you think it isn't valuable for students to learn about great literature?" and the best answer you've come up with is that because it didn't help you in law school.

So I'll cherry pick one part of your rant:

etymology...the best one...understanding words just by knowing roots of words...

So since you consider etymology so useful, why are you so hostile to study of the writer who made the single greatest contribution to our working vocabulary? Shakespeare invented more words that are still used in common parlance than any other individual. Not to mention the vast amount of common phrases that people still use every day which were coined by him. Again, more than any other writer. If the study of the English language is really important to you, I don't see how you can dismiss Shakespeare as irrelevant.

There are other reasons to read Shakespeare, but it seems to me that there is a serious gap in your knowledge if you value etymology but disparage Shakespeare.

Oh and one more thing, you do know that Old English is a completely different thing to Shakespeare, right? Old English is what the Beowulf manuscript was written in, for example:

HWÆT, WE GAR-DEna in geardagum,
þeodcyninga þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon!

Seems like there's another gap in your knowledge of etymology.

[–] oscar_ray2_jimenez 8 years ago

Thank you so much for saving my time, voicing my exact thoughts through impeccable wording.

This: "etymology...the best one...understanding words just by knowing roots of words...invaluable skill", then, shortly after, this: "worry about what exactly Romeo was trying to say to Juliet in that impossible to understand prose...". just... woah. I actually laughed in real life when reading this. No wonder the OP seems to despise Shakespeare so much; I mean, being able to churn instant classics like that all by himself, who needs good ole Will' burdensome, useless literary legacy, right?

Coherent, consequent thinking keeps dying its sad, slow death with each passing day in this incoherent, inconsequential society in which we live.

[–] davebesag 8 years ago

There's more than enough time to teach children life skills such as credit card management as well as classics such as Macbeth.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

Not really. There are literally a million other things that children could and should be doing besides razor like focus on one damn poet from like the 15 *beep* hundreds A.D.**

And the truth is that pretentious numbnuts on school boards and in the education system find Shakespeare is a way to insert pretension into the curriculum. Shakespeare is the epitome of frou frou cocktail parties where one uppers try to impress each other with wealth, intellectual superiority and connections...But, there is simply nothing brilliant about English prose that no one can understand. And just because people say they understand it doesn't mean they're intelligent sorry to tell ya...

Galena

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

**I know when the guy lived, but I was just making a point about how stupid it is to even care about when the guy lived so I'm not going to say it.

[–] friendofthebard 8 years ago

pretentious numbnuts on school boards and in the education system find Shakespeare is a way to insert pretension into the curriculum.

Yes, with the kind of students teachers have to deal with these days, I'm sure much of their day is spent trying to insert pretension into the curriculum.

Shakespeare is the epitome of frou frou cocktail parties . . .

Shakespeare is a cocktail party! Woo hoo! Since he wrote a number of wildly hilarious scenes, I can assure you that the 'damn poet' would be pleased to know it.

there is simply nothing brilliant about English prose that no one can understand.

You went to law school but you can't understand Shakespeare? Or are you just trying to insert pretension into your post by saying you went to law school?

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] friendofthebard 8 years ago

So sorry to disappoint you.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] friendofthebard 8 years ago

My apologies, pearce-duncan. The OP lost me after referring to useless poetry and prose like Shakespeare.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

Who said Macbeth is a classic to "everyone"....?? but I have to tell ya...I'm in an airport right now, and it sure is difficult to travel without a credit card...and without credit card skills, you don't get to keep them...and if you don't have a credit card, some things are difficult to navigate....sorry...Shakespeare is not accepted in lieu of cash or check there fella...

Galena

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] beat 8 years ago

There's more than enough time to teach children life skills such as credit card management as well as classics such as Macbeth.

this!
the ignorant, anti-culture argument "it's of no use in the real world" always drives me crazy.

[–] mr_bickle_the_pickle 8 years ago

the ignorant, anti-culture argument "it's of no use in the real world" always drives me crazy.

I know right? And the same thing could be said about any subject tbh. I mean, its not like learning that the mitchondria is the power house of the cell comes to use in my day to day life.

We accept the love we think we deserve
http://mrsantonyelchin.tumblr.com/

[–] Lokisgodhi 8 years ago

Why do students need to study McBeth?

Understanding politics. Something in which American students could use a serious amount of education then they currently get.

Like in McBeth, we have a senate filled with a hundred self absorbed egotistical douchebags who to the last one think they'd make a much better president than whomever is currently in office. Now if only there were some way to get rid of him.....?

Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and Jack Kennedy would find it particularly of interest.

[–] Thespear 8 years ago

Lena,

Clearly you don't like literature much and perhaps hate Shakespeare the most. However, an education is more than simply giving a student "skills", it is about exposing them to as much as possible, sufficiently so that they can a) decide for themselves and b) develop other skills even c) learn life lessons.

It does not have to be Shakespeare ( although Shakespeare has volumes already available) It could be the works of the more modern lyricists. It is about learning to discern things; it is perhaps about learning to CREATE things.

Hollywood is not the only one fleecing the hardworking middle class. So are athletes; pop stars; politicians and all high earning professionals. that is reality of life today. Even if school ONLY taught kids how to catch, throw, kick or hit a ball or how to be a pop star AND all the skills they would need to survive in the modern world... and even if they taught NO literature it would not make ANY difference!. The kids with well off professional parents will end of better off than their peers. There will still be a few pop stars, athletes and celebrity millionaires. The majority of the middle class will continue to be fleeced...unless people wake up!

It is NOT wasting time showing a kid how to 'perhaps' impress generations to come through art. Even if you don't inspire him to anything, you at least allow him to learn life-lessons at no cost. Isn't that really what life is all about... learning lessons?

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are" Nin

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

Literature is just fine...blah blah blah...but I live in the REAL world....I grew up with privilege and the best life had to offer with to this day still married parents (over 50 years...) but I was smart enough to open my eyes and remove myself from the veil which is over most of our eyes in this country especially...I was not afraid to go out there among the REAL people...poor people...yeah...I'm talking those folks ultra conservative folks claim live on $5000 a month in fraudulent food stamps although in my career it always seems they are homeless with verified income at a cap on average of $400-$700+- at most...barely eating and surviving...

By the way...I have a minor in English....but...at what age do folks study Shakespeare again??? Rhetorical question...the folks I deal with daily....most of them have not made it past 9th or 10th grade.

If you are homeless or are in foster care because mom and dad are meth heads and are going to court being pushed and pulled by the system being told you can't see mom and dad...either cause they are in prison or in rehab...then you really don't care about Shakespeare...or staying in school for that matter eh?

Then you go find substitute love...get pregnant...get your food stamps....then end up with yourself dropping out of school...like mom and dad then getting involved in the Court system where the state is trying to terminate your parental rights as well...some folks say to those folks, "stop sponging..off the system...if you can't feed em...don't breed em..."...what I say in return is....easy for people to say who have not been wrenched from their parents...I cannot even fathom the soul trauma that causes to humans...but it happens...but I can imagine it leaves folks lost at sea in ways people who have not suffered through it can never comprehend...

Especially self righteous Shakespeare snobs who have tons of mental energy to dwell on a dead poet from hundreds of years ago and prop him up as the answer to all life's ills...

The bottom line is there has to be a reason for kids to stay in school...Shakespeare ain't it...it is a complete waste of time...and when you are going home to drug addicted parents or alcoholics (like the parents I deal with every day) there is simply not that attention span for it...

But....those same kids might stick.around for vocational training...

K2...spice...meth...heroin...our society is not the same as it was in the 50s when Shakespeare was a staple reading curriculum in school...Today...we have serious drop out issues...welfare rolls...and societal issues...and to the poster that said Shakespeare teaches politics? No...politics teaches politics...plenty of that in the world to choose for curriculum as well...

Galena

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] Thespear 8 years ago

Literature is part of the REAL world too! It's instruction helps nurture and develop our collective emotional and cultural health. Human beings are social animals and man has been telling stories since he was a cave dweller. Don't you think he had problems then too? It does not have to be Shakespeare, if that is not to your liking but reading your words conjures up a world without ANY OTHER learning beyond what is necessary to help those in the dire straits. While that goal is noble, I think it is shortsighted to believe that such instruction ALONE is a sufficient for human development. Maybe you can have a world without Shakespeare but one with ALL the great writers, poets, artists, songwriters, pop stars, movie actors, painters etc...That would not be a world worth living in for ANY of us.

Indeed, if you examine the lives of many of the people whose WORKS have had the greatest impact on us all, you will find great suffering of the kind you are so concerned with. Ever wondered how and why that is?

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are" Nin

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] DoughnutGlazebun 8 years ago

LoL you're dumb. Obviously people have issues like drugs, not making enough, homelessness.... how would cutting Shakespeare from the curriculum SOLVE these issues? A major problem with american education is CUTTING *beep* Cutting hours, cutting cursive, cutting math and reading requirements. We keep lowering our standards which is why we end up with a more uneducated/ low income/ food stamp dependent population. Reading and learning about great literature and its history is essential. I did Macbeth in highschool while learning proper essay structures and how to write shot stories from a teacher who came dressed in Elizabethan garb (Highschool mind you, we weren't little kids) and served us dried apple slices ( said they were a snack from that era...). I remembered this because it was when I learned to love literature. I'm finishing my bachelors in bio/ minor in chem and even though i'm knee deep in circulatory system, histology and trying to figure out what I can use to make a haloform at home (for reasons..), even I know how invaluable Shakespeare is. Sorry your experiences with classical literature wasn't as good.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

Well sport, I went to law school many years ago. Years before that I went to elementary school where, without and before being bored by Shakespeare, I learned how to spell "short stories." You obviously didn't. Just for your information, it is not spelled "shot stories." Just thought you'd like to know that. But apparently Shakespeare teachers who dress like fools don't cover that one or you would have known that. Eh?

You do raise a very interesting point though. Often, and quite frankly, way too often, people in the sciences really don't know how to write. Which proves that perhaps high schools should ditch the whole literature aspect of English classes, and concentrate more on writing. That way people won't have to sift through shoddy grammar and spelling errors as scientists struggle to make their cases in writing. Keep studying there kiddo...

Galena

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] DoughnutGlazebun 8 years ago

Aww trying to insult me grandpa/ma (*beep* who hasn't gone to law school btw...). What doctor can spell? All their writing looks like chicken scratch. You act like Shakespeare raped your mother and killed your father. I made many good points and you only go personal which shows how invalid your argument is (and i'm not going for memes here). How does getting rid of Shakespeare/ classical literature solve any problems? How can you teach writing without examples? Doesn't cutting more lead to the problems you listed? HMM? So dumb....poor you...keep home schooling your kids and vote Trump.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

And...very sensitive as well...lol......pretty bold for someone who is still not yet graduated there fella...you are striving for success...not there yet...still have to get out there and compete in what is a really really tough job market...don't worry...you'll see what I'm saying one day if you are lucky to live past your 20's and as old as your grandparents who you just threw under the bus..

Let's hope you dont go into medicine if you have contempt for old people. That would not be the right profession for you sweet pea..

Galena
*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] amkatz 8 years ago

Obvious irony here--& forgive me if it's already been pointed out--is that despise the Bard as useless & irrelevant however much you will, he has obviously made an impression on your mind & in the style of your expression.

Your very comments, not to mention the response they excite, demonstrate that those long hours spent wresting Elizabethan prose were time well spent.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

The only problem with creating a thread on IMDB...people nip at your heels for 400000000 years after that with stupid comments

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] amkatz 8 years ago

Or, as the Bard would say, hoist by her own petard, lol!

[–] DoughnutGlazebun 8 years ago

Aww yes, and don't bother answering. I saw some of your other posts and someone else said it best. "obvious troll is obvious".

[–] harv-57 8 years ago

You must have had a very poor English teacher Lena.

I feel sorry for you.
You really missed out.
And you're still missing out.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] harv-57 8 years ago

Skills.
Yes.

A kind of "how to" or more accurately a "how not to" on achieving ultimate power.

Got it.
Lesson learned.

;)

[–] patrick_bateman_90029 8 years ago

Because Lena has had an obsessive disdain for Fassbender for years. She probably never heard of Shakespeare before Fassbender's involvement in this adaptation of "Macbeth", nor does she care about what she says unless it affects Fassbender or his fanbase. When it comes to him, she's like Briony Tallis from "Atonement": a brat who'd probably go as far to ruin someone's life to give her own pampered existence meaning.

[–] SomethingOrAnother 8 years ago

off of

Off would just suffice, idiot.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

Would JUST suffice?????.....lolololololol...

Somebody got a boo boo and hurteepie.....Galena hurt a fanatic's feelwleens...awwwwwwwww......poooooo babeeeeeee...

Galena...

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] filmfancy 8 years ago

Somebody got a boo boo and hurteepie.....Galena hurt a fanatic's feelwleens...awwwwwwwww......poooooo babeeeeeee...

Yes, you really sound like you went to law school and are a lawyer with your infantile comments and insults.

And all the pieces matter (The Wire)

[–] SomethingOrAnother 8 years ago

you went to law school and are a lawyer

Wow, this person actually claims this? How sad, much pity for Lena.

[–] SomethingOrAnother 8 years ago

Seems you're the one with the "booboo" considering how much of an overreaction you made.

[–] LenaAFoster 8 years ago

Why am I getting fan obsessed idiots like yourself responding to this thread still? I read IMDB removes the thread after a couple of months. Lol...Especially since this movie flopped and went straight to DVD or free Amazon..months ago that would be nice... And 2 posts by you to me there slick??? You must have your feelings hurt FOR your favorite guy to come at me like this a good 8 months after my original post. Bet he doesn't feel the same way about you there sport. Post away. I'm flattered by the attention. But, I don't like getting notices in my inbox so I'm going to have to put you on ignore to prevent that. Saaaawwwwwreeeee....

Galena...

*Free speech opinion w/ pseudonym internet moniker w/o malice for debate and discussion🌈

[–] SomethingOrAnother 8 years ago

My Favourite guy? Akira Kurosawa? Benjamin Disraeli? Chuck Yeager?

I guess I got under your skin that you put me on ignore.

[–] mr_bickle_the_pickle 8 years ago

To quote Dead Poets Society :

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.

I agree that there should be more "skill-building" type classes. Classes where you learn how to file taxes, to budget, to resumes etc. Things that will directly benefit them in real world scenarios.

But that doesn't mean it should be at the expense of literature. It doesn't just help with increasing one's vocabulary, its about comprehension skills. Evaluating it and connecting it to real world situations.

We accept the love we think we deserve
http://mrsantonyelchin.tumblr.com/