When discussing whether or not the novel should be part of the Natick High School curriculum, it is important to address the specific needs of the students. Although Natick is a predominantly white town, Natick High School has a good number of African-American students due to its METCO program. It stands in good reason, therefore, to assume that productive discussions regarding race and our nation's history will result from the inclusion of the novel in the NHS curriculum.

While the history department at NHS does cover slavery as part of U.S. history, The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn provides a much better picture of life during that time period than the historical text

The question remains that if students are offended for any reason, isn't it better to remove the novel than needlessly upset students? Last year, for example, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People argued that "tax dollars should not be used to perpetuate a stereotype that has psychologically damaging effects on the self-esteem of African-American children." In response to this statement, I contend that education is the pursuit of knowledge, not politically correct knowledge. It is through provocative and sometimes offensive subject matter that students grow to truly understand the world. If we were to eliminate all subject matter that might be found offensive by some students, we would no longer have Biology because it may offend some Christian students who firmly believe in creation as opposed to evolution. We would no longer have History because some students might be offended by the occurrences of the holocaust. We would no longer have literary studies due to the fact that every once in a while, an author writes a piece of literature that accurately portrays an abhorrent situation. The world would eventually sink back into the dark ages, and we'd all live in blissful ignorance. Instead, we need to accept our past and learn from it. As Shelley Fishkin, an English professor at the University of Texas in Austin, says "This book is one of the greatest anti-racist works of fiction by an American. If you're going to show racism with all its warts, you have to use the language they would use," By recognizing the injustice of past events, we ensure that they never happen again. To exclude Huck Finn because some students find it offensive would be tantamount to ignoring the struggle American slaves had to endure.

http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/huckleberry_finn.html

There has also been quite a bit of unrest caused by the frequent use of the word "nigger" in the novel. Critics use the frequent use of the word as proof of the racist nature of the novel. However, once one understands that Clemens was merely trying to accurately depict southern culture, this argument seems ridiculous. For example, in one scene, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion:

Many critics have also charged that the character of "Jim" in the novel re-enforces racist stereotypes of the time period. Ralph Ellison, an authority on the subject, charges "Writing at a time when the blackfaced minstrel was still popular, and shortly after a war which left even the abolitionists weary of those problems associated with the Negro, Twain fitted Jim into the out

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