Being a good parent vs. a bad citizen FINAL Edition 1

• Published in: USA today (Arlington, Va.)
• Main Author: Gartner, Michael
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: McLean, Va USA Today, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc 10.09.1996
• ISSN: 0734-7456

AMES, Iowa -- Isn't there enough in this world to worry about -- war in Chechnya and bombings in Iraq, perhaps -- without worrying about Huckleberry Finn? Again last school year, parents and legislators and school-board members across the nation tried to censor what our children -- our children, not just their children -- can read and learn in the public schools. It's all documented in the 14th annual report ``Attacks on the Freedom to Learn,'' a sad compilation put out last week by People for the American Way. In Eureka, Kan., the school board banned The Canterbury Tales from a 12th-grade college preparatory literature class; parents said it was too racy. In Jacksonville, Fla., a grandparent objected to Alice Walker's The Temple of My Familiar, saying it was vulgar and sexual, so now students can check it out of the library only with parental permission. In San Jose, Calif., the school board removed The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from required reading lists in high schools because it contains the word ``nigger.''