Sign of the apocalypse

A new SOTA has recently emerged - the conversion of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales into rap songs.

He said: "I tried to keep the rap versions as close as possible to the original, so I went through the tales line-by-line.

"It was a painstaking process to convert Chaucer into a rhyme scheme that young people would like."

The tales have been condensed for performance, but with the aim of maintaining their original sense.

For instance, the phrase "goone towards that village" translates to "hit the streets".

I mean, I am all for helping kids get turned on to classics. I even liked the Baz Luhrman version of Romeo & Juliet. But there is a line, and I think this is where I would draw it. Part of the point of studying the Canterbury Tales is to give the student an understanding not only of the work itself, but how this work helps show the evolution of the English language. You can't teach that if you change "goone towards that village" to "hit the streets".

Sure, perhaps at some point in my life I'll have to stop being old-fashioned. I accept the fact that such works are hard for kids to get through. But there are ways of teaching it that can invoke the interest and curiousity of the students without having to resort to rap music. I really think that at some point we have to start expecting more from students and stop trying to "dumb down" things so much.