A Pennsylvania school removed an American classic from its curriculum after a group of students said it made them uncomfortable.
The Friends’ Central School removed a Mark Twain classic from being taught to 11th graders in an American literature class because its use of the N-word was “not being inclusive,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“We have all come to the conclusion that the community costs of reading this book in 11th grade outweigh the literary benefits,” Friends’ Central School principal Art Hall said in a letter to parents last week.
Ironically the Twain classic, about a boy who flees abuse and sails down the Mississippi River with an escaping slave, was boycotted in some places in 1885 in the United States because it featured a friendship between a black man and a white boy. Now it is being censored because of its recurring use of the N-word.
Yep, we’re talking about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
“We have all come to the conclusion that the community costs of reading this book in 11th grade outweigh the literary benefits.”
Friends’ Central School principal Art Hall
Hall, an “upper school principal” at Friends’ Central School and a UCLA alumnus, said he is glad the decision to remove the book had been made. He added that the book will remain in the school’s library, and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass will be taught to the 11th graders instead.
“I’m very proud of the process that our community engaged in to make the decision,” he said.
The book has also sparked controversy at other American schools in the past few years; in 2011, a publisher released an edition of the book that omitted each time the N-word was mentioned. Not all schools have banned the original version of the book, however.
“We don’t shy away from teaching it,” Jim Miller, dean of students and an English teacher at Friends Select School, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We see it as a very important opportunity to educate kids further about the use of language, especially the use of the N-word.”
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, said she sees the banning of the book from the school system as censorship.
“We would still see this as a kind of censorship because there is something to be learned from this work,” she said.
Other Americans have added to the conversation on social media by showing their support for the book, which they perceive as anti-racist rather than contributing to racism.