Young Children In UK To Be Forced To Memorize Poetry Under New Education Plan

“Children as young as five will be expected to learn and recite poetry by heart in a major overhaul of the national curriculum for schools in England. The education secretary, Michael Gove, will promise a new focus on the traditional virtues of spelling and grammar when he sets out his plans for the teaching of English in primary schools later this week. At the same time, Gove will put forward proposals to make learning a foreign language compulsory for pupils from the age of seven.”

Jay McInerney: How “Great Gatsby” Defined An Age

“At that time, Gatsby seemed like the relic of an age most wanted to forget. In the succeeding years, Fitzgerald’s slim tale of the jazz age became the most celebrated and beloved novel in the American canon. It’s more than an American classic; it’s become a defining document of the national psyche, a creation myth, the Rosetta Stone of the American dream. And yet all the attempts to adapt it to stage and screen have only served to illustrate its fragility and its flaws.”

Broadway’s Record Season (And A Few Tony Predictions)

“Forty shows opened (14 musicals, 23 plays and 3 special events) to a total gross of $1.14 billion and an audience of 12.33 million. Actual attendance was down by 200,000 people, but then last season was kind of a leap season: there were 53 playing weeks. Despite that dip in the behinds-in-seats tally, total box-office receipts leapt by about $600,000 this season.”