Taylor Swift or Shakespeare? That’s the question Catherine Gottlieb from NCHS has for you after reading you this snippet of prose: “I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones in a faith-forgotten land.” That’s just one of several in an interactive display at Naperville Central High School, with the answer being between one of two famous writers: Taylor Swift or Shakespeare.
If the answer isn’t immediately obvious, it might be because it’s not as easy as you think. There are even more examples of the bard’s and the blonde’s writings that can easily be confused for one another’s, which is the focus of something going on in Naperville Central High School.
Naperville Central puts Taylor Swift and Shakespeare on display
The display is located in the NCHS Learning Commons. Catherine Gottlieb, the NCHS Learning Commons Director, immediately saw the appeal of a project like this when it was suggested to her. “Two of my assistants are really hugely into Taylor Swift,” said Gottlieb. “So they just found some quizzes online and thought it would be a fun display to do.”
Each bit of prose is plucked from a Shakespeare play, Sonnet or Taylor Swift song. Think long and hard about each guess, then flip the card to see if you’re right. It’s more challenging than you may think, and even die-hard Swifties or … Shakies…? may not get them all.
Sonnet or Song? You get to guess
Gottlieb understands that not everyone will have an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire catalog of either writer, but that’s no excuse to have a go at guessing. “Some people who haven’t followed Taylor Swift too much realize that they are familiar with her music as well as, you know, maybe they didn’t connect with Shakespeare during an English class, but now when it’s, comparing it to Taylor Swift, they can see how poetry has roots going back many years.”
And if you’re curious, the answer to Catherine’s question at the beginning was Taylor Swift.
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