So, back in March I was asked to give a speech about how British Culture is celebrated in the United States. A bit of an awkward topic, but anyway. Here’s the transcript of that speech for your reading and viewing pleasure.
When speaking of how British culture is taught and celebrated in American schools we must first remember that we, The United Stated and Britain, are two unique cultures not only connected through a common language but also through a common history.
The first and most basic way British culture is taught is through the study of our own American history. Beginning as thirteen small colonies of the massive British Empire, our nation’s very roots are essentially British. Over time, our relationship with the crown turned tumultuous and on July 4th 1776 we declared our independence and severed our ties with the British Empire, thus creating a new and independent nation.
Although our colonial ties were cut, our cultural ties, sometimes subtle and sometimes obvious never ceased. Now leaving the past behind and looking forward, the most prevalent forms of British culture in the United Stated are carried on through holiday customs, musical influences, and literature.
Many American holiday traditions surrounding Halloween and Christmas are deeply rooted in British Traditions. The Halloween celebrations of carving faces into pumpkins and root vegetables, known as Jack-O-Lanterns, and going door to do to collect small treats while dressed in costume, commonly known as trick-or-treating, were brought to America by British, Scottish, and Irish immigrants.
The Christmas tree, a German tradition, did not become popular in the United Stated outside the German-American community until it became fashionable among Britain’s royalty in the 1820′s. Now the Christmas tree is a ubiquitous symbol of the holiday season. The first commercial Christmas card was first produced in London. Traditional British Christmas foods such as turkey, goose, meat, potatoes, puddings, and cider are prepared and enjoyed by Americans as a part of our Christmas festivities.
Music is an important part of any culture and British music has made an impact on American music namely in the realm of popular music. In the 1960′s four young men from Liverpool changed the way Americans listened to and played music. The Beatles, one of the most acclaimed and successful groups in popular music history, completely changed the American music scene. For the first time since before the 1920′s, American popular culture was no longer the dominant force on the global scene. The Beatles opened the door to a variety of British acts and enabled them to become popular in American and on a global scale. This became known as the British Invasion.
The last major influence of British Culture and perhaps the most far-reaching and most important to the American Educational System is British literature. Every student in the United States has had to read at least one novel by a British author. Some schools, like my high school, dedicated a full year to British literature. A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens remain to this day favorites of high school English teachers. Almost every child’s bookshelf or children’s library will have a copy of Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Children’s imaginations are still nurtured by the tale of Alice stumbling down the rabbit’s hole. A tale made famous by Lewis Carrol in his novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass.
But it is William Shakespeare who is the dominant force in the American literature classroom. Every high school student is expected to read at least one play during their high school career and Shakespeare remains popular with student theater productions. Romeo and Juliet is with out a doubt the most popular of Shakespeare’s works among American students.
In my own schooling, Shakespeare was a major component of my literature classes starting in the 6th grade and continuing on into high school. In high school, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet were the choices of my literature teachers. We were asked to read, study, and even perform experts in our literature classes and we were tested on our ability to memorize Shakespearian quotes and sonnets.
In 6th grade, my class participated in an interesting program. We had a woman who was an actress, speech coach, and a Shakespeare scholar take over our classes for almost three weeks. We did nothing but study Shakespeare, read his plays and sonnets, audition, and rehearse experts from plays. At the end of the three weeks we put on a performance for our teachers, parents, and schoolmates in heavy gowns and historical dress with the aids of microphones or other electronic devices.
Through this program, we not only had to memorize the beautiful and lyrical words of Shakespeare but we had to learn how to speak, how to carry ourselves with poise and with self confidence. To this day I still consider the Shakespeare program one of the greatest learning experiences of my early schooling.
From subtle to the sublime, through history, tradition, music, and literature, British culture has certainly left its stitch in the multi-cultural fabric of my country. It is an impact that is still felt to this day and is celebrated in our classrooms mainly through literature. I’m sure that the king of English language literature, William Shakespeare, will continue to be studied and performed in American schools for years to come.
