Secondary School Literature - Shakespeare

If Secondary school Math was the shining pinnacle of my grades, then Literature (Lit) was the dark tar pit that trapped prehistoric animals in unrelenting morass. In other words, I absolutely hated Lit because my grades were usually barely above passing and I didn't understand what the heck they were yakking about. What sparked this rant was my recent attendance of the Shakespearean play "Merchant of Venice". With the actors, the set, the costumes and the accents, I was actually able to follow the story, without falling asleep. That's a lot more than I can say for Lit class. All the teacher did was to run through the book and translated "sixspear inglis" (I have since learned that Shakespeare made up most of those words). The teacher should have shown me an actual play, or a tape of a play, preferably with translation subtitles. (Oh how I wish I had the internet then. Downloading a televised play would have been so convenient!) A picture says a thousand words. I would have had an easier time understanding Julius Caesar if all the plotting was acted out instead of trying to read a version of English 400 years dead. In addition, another part of my poor grades was because I wasn't taught how to answer the Lit questions. If my Lit teacher had taught me how to answer the Shakespeare questions, then with my typical singaporean-student-exam-smart-do-10-year-series style, I could at least fake answers with reasonable correctness. But of course, "correctness" probably isn't how Shakespearean plays are supposed to be experienced. So if anyone from MOE is reading this, especially Lit teachers (you know who you are), please stop spoiling Literature for us by making it an exam topic.