Thank an English Teacher: "Julius Caesar" Is Trending on Twitter

Need a reason to thank your high school English teacher for all that hard work? Consider one of the trending topics on Twitter today: "Julius Caesar." The Roman statesman's name has been in the top ten today because it's the Ides of March, the fateful day Caesar was stabbed 23 times by a traitorous group of Roman senators in the year 44 B.C.. In the midst of all of the defunding of schools and bashing of teachers, it doesn't hurt to remember that without English teachers' willingness to introduce generation after generation of students to William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, few of us would remember the murder of a Roman dictator 2055 years ago.

To be fair, maybe you should thank your English teacher and William Shakespeare. Sure, there are probably a few history teachers out there who delve into Plutarch's comparably dry account of Caesar's interactions with the soothsayer. But how much more engaging is the story in English class with a text of Shakespeare's famous play? English teachers love staging classroom re-enactments of Act I, Scene II, where one student reads Caesar's part and the another reads the soothsayer's part, dramatically proclaiming, "Beware the Ides of March."

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So, shout out to my English teacher, Mrs. Hoover—and all the English teachers out there—who love Shakespeare dearly and pass their passion on to students.