Debate: Should 'Huckleberry Finn' stay banned in schools or go back in?

I heard one side says the N-word makes it too harmful for kids, but the other argues banning it hides real history. Which camp are you in after reading both arguments?

3 comments

3 Comments

briancampbell1d ago

The book uses the N-word over 200 times, and I just don't think that's something you can hand to a 14-year-old without a lot of context and teaching around it. Banning it completely feels like a cop out though, because hiding that part of history doesn't make it go away... it just leaves kids ignorant about how bad things really were. I read it back in 9th grade and my teacher didn't do a great job explaining the racial stuff, so most of us just giggled at the language instead of learning from it. Maybe the answer is a classroom edition with a warning up front and a teacher's guide that actually helps kids understand the time period, not just dump the book on them.

rowan_butler931d ago

Wait, didn't you also have that one kid in your class who just yelled it out every time it came up in the reading? That was me, unfortunately. I still cringe thinking about it because my teacher just awkwardly stared at the floor instead of shutting it down or explaining anything. You're totally right that a bad teacher can make the whole thing worse than if they just skipped the book entirely. A solid teacher's guide and a warning at the front seems like the obvious middle ground here, like why hasn't anyone done that already? I remember reading it in 9th grade too and coming away with mostly confusion and secondhand embarrassment, not any real understanding of the history. Isn't the whole point of teaching this stuff to make sure kids actually get it, not just hand them a book and hope for the best?

charles_chen931d ago

People do this with SO many things nowadays, not just books. We sanitize everything instead of teaching people how to handle the rough stuff. Then everyone acts surprised when nobody knows how to deal with real life.