Are pupils too stupid to understand Shakespeare?

Lord Kerr has been coming under criticism for calling the general public stupid; superficially this often appears true, but to anyone bothering to look, it is obvious that this is a failing of the British education system rather than a lack of potential.

As case in point, I look to Shakespeare - whilst high school pupils study a different play each year, getting them to engage with the literature has become ever more difficult. To try and increase engagement and understanding, liberals have even produced emoji game versions of the texts - with the hope millennials are shallow enough to be fascinated by this. Unfortunately, simply shoehorning small pictures into the texts will do nothing to increase understanding.

I'm still optimistic enough to believe that most millennials, and even (hopefully) generation Z, are not actually stupid - but when it comes to understanding and appreciating historical literature a knowledge of the cultural background of the texts is essential, but fundamentally lacking in our education system. Slowly but surely, education and discussion of our island's history, philosophy and culture has been eroded; without knowledge of such reference points, how can pupils be expected to gain a depth of understanding?

Whilst Britain may have become a mostly secular society, historically Christianity was a central tenant of British thinking and culture, and still forms the basis of our legal and moral codes - a fact that seems to have been forgotten in the push for multiculturalism. Even when reading more modern texts, such as Lord of the Rings, the Chronicles of Narnia - indeed most British literature up to the mid-20th century - it would be impossible to recognise or appreciate the philosophical themes without a reasonable working knowledge of the Bible. With little to no education in the development of Christian philosophy through the Middle Ages and Reformation, we cannot expect teenagers to appreciate Shakespeare, nor blame them for being stupid when they leave school.

The short-sighted methods of teaching Shakespeare are indicative of the problems with the British education system at large. Until it can be fixed, Lord Kerr will continue to have good reason to call us stupid.