Would I Teach Huckleberry Finn in a Public School Classroom?

         This is the question that my professor asked on the last day of our class study of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This novel has been challenged, contested, and ever rewritten once because of a certain racial slur that appears in the novel. I won’t get into why its there or the importance of its presence in the novel because so many academics (there are Mark Twain theorists who have spent their entire CV studying Twain’s novels) have argued that point up one side of the social commentary and down the other, and I have no desire to add a note to the white noise. Instead I’ll just say its there for a reason and changing it ruins the entire point. Anyway this racial slur and the delicate issue of race are the entire point that this book, the American novel as I said previously, faces plenty of contention when people who understand its significance attempt to bring it into a high school classroom.

            Now, when the question was first posed to the class, my first response was that I would teach it because my usual approach when dealing with many delicate issues is to come equipped with a brick. Apparently there are several specimens of teenage stupidity that use the novel’s context as an excuse to take advantage of the slur and ruin this important work of literature for everyone. In my smash-it-with-a-brick approach my expectation is that I’d be teaching a group of high school students who should be capable of getting over themselves for a 50 minute class.

            Do you see the problem with my logic?

            Other than my attempt to apply logic, high school students are capable of the above but the social pressures of the high school environment typically prevent anyone attempting any semblance of maturity. Because of this and parents whose entire approach to literature is kneejerk reactions my approach would do more harm than good. The education system in this country is designed to teach kids that the world is made of fluffy clouds and chocolate puppy dog. At least that’s what I assume based on the fact that almost every challenge to a work of literature, that I’ve read, includes some semblance of the phrase unpleasant or objectionable material. God forbid that we present students with unpleasant truths because then they might have a chance to prepare for the harsh realities of the world. Better yet, when faced with the world’s harsh realities the young high school students might realize that many of their ‘life ending’ problems are quite trivial by comparison, which would make the students getting over themselves much easier.

This seems like a solid plan.

            I came to the conclusion that I would just never teach high school but if I did the education system would need to grow a spine and stop banning books just because some parents, who likely never even cracked the cover of the novel, don’t want their precious angels to be subjected to unpleasantness, Then I might teach the novel.

            I apologize that this post is a bit more ranty than previous ones but this subject is one that I have strong feeling about. Its hard for me to look at the education of our future generations objectively and maybe that’s a good thing. However, to lighten things up here's a vat picture that's somewhat relevant to the topic.

Yay! Cats are back!