Banned Books Group at eNotes

I get the same thing from Huck Finn, but if a decent discussion of...

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 12:37:35 PST

I get the same thing from Huck Finn, but if a decent discussion of equality and history in America is given before the text is even cracked open, there shouldn't be much immature behavior. These are both great books that should be taught for their lessons on equality, racism, prejudice, justice, humanity, and family relationships. Of course, there are other themes, but these are among the most important. Nobody is ever born a bigot. ...

Overall, I had a positive experience teaching that novel to my 10th...

Mon, 9 Mar 2009 08:01:51 PST

Overall, I had a positive experience teaching that novel to my 10th graders last year. I had a few students who thought it was "boring," but there will be kids who say that for any novel you teach. Some of them were a little sensitive about the language at first, but it helped to put it into context and then discuss the way it was presented in the novel, as it came up. In addition to the racial language, some of the southern or period...

It's a wonderful book and should be taught. Anyone who calls it a...

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 17:59:41 PST

It's a wonderful book and should be taught. Anyone who calls it a racist book is just plain... well... ignorant. The entire message of the book is just the opposite of racist, however, the "n-word" does raise an issue. One county I worked for forbade us from saying it out loud while reading. Another didn't mind, because they recognized that it was supposed to be purposefully inflamatory to make readers feel uncomfortable about a very...

Teaching To Kill a Mockingbird

Sun, 8 Mar 2009 13:03:22 PST

Has anyone encountered any flak from teaching To Kill a Mockingbird? I taught it just this year, and I only had a couple of students who wanted to raise their hackles about the use of "The N-word" and similar matters.

Once the historical aspect of the novel was explored, however, the kids became pretty mature and open-minded about the whole thing, and came to understand the book's overall message of tolerance and equality.

Any...