I Believe the Children are the Future…

My humble opinion: children, pre-teens, tweens, so on? They should read the Classics. Literature. Teachers should insist on it.

A particular memory tickles me to this day. My sis and I were sitting in a movie theater years ago, waiting to see Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet.” Behind us, we caught the following conversation which, in all honesty, actually happened:

Girl 1: Somebody told me that he dies at the end!
Girl 2: Are you serious? He dies?
Girl 1: That’s what I heard.

Needless to say, my sis and I could not contain our endless laughter. It was hilarious and terrifying. Had these girls never heard of Romeo and Juliet? Were they not aware that not only does “he” die, but she, as well? Or was this solely a DiCaprio thing, that of simply coming to the movies to ogle and swoon at Mr. Popularity of That Time? We didn’t know. All we knew was that their breathless, concerned conversation had actually taken place.

The point: children, pre-teens, tweens, so on? They should read the Classics. Literature. Teachers should insist on it. (Although, being that every English class since the beginning of time has likely read that play, those girls might have been absent from class on that particular day. Yes. Absent. That’s it). That way, if Hollywood takes it upon itself to make a film about a famous Shakespearean play, those girls can enter the movie theater with pride–well aware that yes, he most certainly dies in the end. Well, that he should die, if they stick to the original story. Of which they rarely do.

Um, Movie Girls? Just read, OK? Just read.