The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a Philadelphia Quaker High School, Friends Central School, has decided that the “community costs” of reading Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn outweigh the literary benefits.
I was about ten years old when I read Huckleberry Finn. The part of the book that had the most impact on me was when Huckleberry, who had been raised in the South, knows that if he doesn’t turn in Jim, a runaway slave, he will go to hell. That’s what he has been taught. He weighs turning in his friend against going to hell.
I don’t remember the exact words (it was a long time ago), but Huck decided not to turn in Jim and exclaimed, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.”
That made a deep impression on me. You do what you think is right. I think a good teacher can explain the racial slurs, and I also think 11th graders are smart enough to deal with them.
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