Children should be taught Hitchcock as well as Shakespeare, BFI chairman says

[Jazzy]

Film education should be part of the national curriculum, with Hitchcock given as much prominence in schools as Shakespeare, the chairman of the British Film Institute has claimed.

Greg Dyke said it is “ridiculous” that schools are lagging behind in a world dominated by film and television.

The BFI is launching a £26 million film education programme which aims to reach every child in schools across Britain in four years.

“People at the BFI argue all the time, and I think they’re right: isn’t it weird that we learn Shakespeare but we don’t learn Hitchcock?” Mr Dyke, the former director general of the BBC, told the Times Education Supplement.

“It seems ridiculous to us that in a world where the moving image is the major means of communication, schools seem a long way behind.”

Alongside the after school education programme, the institute is hoping to train teachers and has launched a boot camp for teenagers who aspire to be the next Danny Boyle.

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Isn't this like comparing an apple to an orange?

 

[Sinon]

I think it's a good idea. We're taught Literature, but are movies not written just the same?

 

[DrLeftover]

I can't believe it.

They still teach Shakespeare?

Isn't he a "dead white guy"?

 

[Evil Eye]

Isn't this like comparing an apple to an orange?

How so? There isn't much difference between a play and a movie, not while the focus is on the script in any case.

Isn't he a "dead white guy"?

Who couldn't spell his own name and used made-up words. That probably resonates with some people.