Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution)
Yesterday's edition of The Oregonian features an interesting article by Clifton R. Chestnut about students, instructors and community members who are uncomfortable with Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn being taught in public high schools of Portland, Oregon because the word "nigger" is used in it.
I gather from the article that some think the book shouldn't be used at all for this reason while others think instructors should be better trained to handle the topic.
Since I consider the book to be one of the truely great works of fiction ever and anti-racist in its message -especially the ending which takes a very cynical and critical look at the end of Reconstruction-, I no doubt think it should be taught but I also have no trouble with making sure that instructors are addressing the concerns of students with this book or any other. In fact, I believe that if that doesn't happen then far too many students will not grapple with the ideas contained in the text because doing so is more difficult than not doing so because they don't like a word. posted by micah holmquist at 10/25/2002 05:16:00 PM
