Mark Twain's controversial novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has once again become the subject of much debate. NewSouth Books recently announced that it will publishin a version of Twain's work which eliminates the "n" word. This action seems to have the best of antiracist intentions at heart. The "n" word does, of course, have undeniably deplorable connotations and history attached to it. Schools are justified in their qualms over teaching the book for that reason. NewSouth Books can, therefore, be seen as doing a noble thing in making a classic piece of literature teachable. But the matter is not that simple. While the desire to shelter students from racist language is understandable, it is a poor decision from an educational perspective. While it is true that the book is probably not appropriate for younger students, by high school, readers should be well-aware of the modern and historic implications of racism and have the maturity necessary to discuss the topic in an academic setting. It does young people a disservice to teach them a watered down, censored version of Twain's work. It deprives them of an accurate picture of both the time period in question and of Twain as a writer.

It is essential to remember that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1884. The Civil War ended in 1865, a mere 19 years earlier. Slavery had only recently come to an end and the South was in the throes of Reconstruction. African American men only gained the right to vote through the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, and political tactics such as poll taxes and literacy tests essentially negated the Amendment's power. Twain's use of the hateful "n" word is an indicator of this broader racism that denied African Americans full citizenship. It is a gross inaccuracy on NewSouth Book's part to deny this historical reality through censorship.

Twain's best work holds up a mirror to his society, which is why we think of him as a satirist. Eliminating the "n" word from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn not only denies the lamentable nature of the period's attitude toward African Americans, but also diminishes a great writer's ability to illustrate real life on the page. The novel tasks its reader with discovering what Twain is saying about his society and identifying moments in which he flexes his considerable critical muscles. This analysis is impossible with the interference of censorship.

Cicero said "not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child." If we don't teach our children the dark chapters of American history, they will only know of a past colored by revisionist thinking. We mature through experience but also - and critically - memory. It is tempting to want to erase the history of slavery from America's past and the "n" word from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but doing so will not help us move forward by learning the past.