Quote:
Originally Posted by Garp
Those lessons are important - and, of course, there are other classes to teach them in. However, the issue is that the book is not being taught in schools. And it's due to those 219 words.
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If schools can't discuss the book as written, it should find a different book for whatever lessons it needs. If the messages in the book are too complex and controversial for schoolchildren, it should be set aside until they're old enough to cope with it. It's not like Twain wrote for an intended audience of 13-year-olds.
The edited version brings up a number of questions--Is this still an important-and-relevant book if the way it deals with race is changed? *How* is it still important and relevant, and what different messages will kids learn from the bowdlerized versions? Will they have the same understandings about the book as those who studied the original, just without some of the distaste at the "bad words?"
This isn't the equivalent of beeping over a few swear words in a movie. This is a drastic change in the tone and message of the book, and in how the characters think and act.