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Common Core State Standard
SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support. FOR THE WEEK OF JAN. 10, 2011 Word change in Mark Twain books revives debate about literature, language, raceFind a news or feature presentation illustrating how race relations in 2011 are far different than when Twain wrote.
List or discuss differences between language in newspapers and literature. Why should or shouldn't this paper print the n-word?
Predicting what offends can be tricky. Does any ad, photo, editorial cartoon or opinion column upset you or seem as though it could appear crude to others?
"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter," according to 19th century author Mark Twain. "It is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." Now his best-known books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, are the focus of heated debate over whether a racial slur is the right word for students and others to see. NewSouth Books, accepting advice from a 69-year-old English professor, says the change is intended to avoid offending readers. The 7,500-copy edition also replaces "injun" with "Indian." In its attempt to avoid offending readers, the publisher offended literature scholars, online commentators and Twain admirers of all ages. "Who knows what other words [Huck Finn] contains that are OK now that someday might be offensive?" Comedy Central TV host Stephen Colbert asked sarcastically.
The acclaimed author would recognize the current hullabaloo. The year Huck Finn appeared, the Concord Public Library in Massachusetts banned it for "coarse language." A reviewer called it "the veriest trash ... more suited to the slums than to intelligent, respectable people." In 1905, the Brooklyn Public Library in New York banished the book from its young readers' section. School boards and superintendents in some areas still fussed over it from time to time, and in 1998 parents sued a high school in Tempe, Ariz., to keep the book off a required reading list. They lost at a federal appeals court. Change backer says: "It's such a shame that one word should be a barrier between a marvelous reading experience and a lot of readers." -- Alan Gribben, English professor at Auburn University in Alabama, who advised publisher to change text Writer says: "The notion that contemporary readers of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer are surprised or offended by the word seems questionable. . . . What's next? Substituting orange for red in a painter's work because some observers find red too aggressive?" -- Jill Nelson, African-American author English professor says: "We need to give teachers the tools they need to teach Twain's book in the context of the history of racism in this country." -- Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Stanford University in California, editor of book about Twain Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com Front Page Talking Points is written by
Felix Grabowski and Alan Stamm for NIEonline.com, Copyright 2024
Front Page Talking Points Archive►Schools vs. phones: Bans surge to keep focus on learning rather than screens ►Election drama: Democratic convention will pick a nominee as Biden ends campaign against Trump ►President Biden, 81, resists calls to let a younger Democrat run against Donald Trump ►Turning point: Supreme Court says presidents have 'absolute immunity' for official acts ►First Biden-Trump debate of 2024 airs Thursday from Georgia ►Health experts monitor the jump of bird flu to cows and a few farm hands, but see no wide risk ►Negro Leagues stars from a bygone era gain new standing in Major League Baseball records ►Justice Samuel Alito adds two flags to Supreme Court ethics storms |
Step onto any school campus and you'll feel its energy. Each school is turbocharged with the power of young minds, bodies, hearts and spirits.
Here on the Western Slope, young citizens are honing and testing their skills to take on a rapidly changing world. Largely thanks to technology, they are in the midst of the most profound seismic shift the world has ever seen.
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