The 10th Annual Leggett-Umpleby Lecture was brought to us by Mr. Fred Daly, who is in his 46th year of teaching and 31st year at D-E, 20 years of which were spent as the English Department Chair. He also founded the D-E Shakespeare Society, now in its 17th year. Mr. Daly spoke on whether it is appropriate to teach controversial works of literature such as “The Merchant of Venice,” which has a central character, Shylock, that represents Jewish stereotypes, at a school such as ours that values diversity and inclusion. Oriana Huang ’26 and Ella Siew ’26 joined Mr. Daly onstage to periodically read passages from the play that correlated to portions of the lecture.
One key point Mr. Daly made was that “Anybody who reads anything is going to do so through the lens of their own personal experience.” It’s a message that has resonated with Ella, who said, “In my English classes, Mr. Daly shares his views on the play, but he also continues to push his students to think deeply about how we can relate these stories and plays to our own lives and the world today.” Toward the end of his presentation, Mr. Daly revealed that, “I’ve taught [this play] many times, including to Jewish students… It’s good to think about how issues of ethnicity and race and gender manifest in the play. These are not easy topics; they are challenging, and where better to consider them than in a classroom at the Dwight-Englewood School?”
