We read Huckleberry Finn because it is Quality. We require our children
to read it for the same reason we expose them to Beethoven and Leonardo
da Vinci. We want to communicate to them that there is a world of fine
arts, that there is a great conversation that continues through history
among the best minds, that all of us can be a part of that conversation
when we read works of literature.  Hamlet anguishes in beautiful
language over greed, murder, and cruelty; Huck anguishes over the same
themes in words no less perfectly constructed and, through rich irony,
communicates to us a degree of moral judgment higher than Huck himself
is aware of. That Hamlet should be read by high school students is
something even school boards admit. [ :) ] Huckleberry Finn, with its
gorgeously expressed, profound contemplation of man's inhumanity to man
in the context of tiny people blundering their way through the powerful,
majestic, peaceful, and dreary moods of Nature, deserves no less attention.

I have heard it argued that literature should not be forced down the
throats of unwilling students because they won't understand it and will
probably hate it forever after, that access to literature should be
allowed only when we are mature enough to understand it. But there are
some students who will recognize Quality.

But then again, this is merely an opinion.

And opinions are rarely regarded.

Dick Ford