The original linnk was cut off in my email, so I had to do a search when I
got to the Guardian.  I'm glad I did for I saw reference to an earlier banm
just at end of
last   year.  I thought we'd moved past this mistake.  Also meant more to
me because, although I
haven't been there, Accomack County is where some of my 17th Century irish
ancestors set down their new roots.
Arianne Laidlaw
:

To Kill a Mockingbird removed from Virginia schools for racist ...
<https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/05/to-kill-a-mockingbird-removed-virginia-schools-racist-language-harper-lee&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwiCge2R96jZAhUh5oMKHQ-aBzgQFggIMAE&client=internal-uds-cse&cx=007466294097402385199:m2ealvuxh1i&usg=AOvVaw2B2LdStxb-LFwccwSkcAW0>
<https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/dec/05/to-kill-a-mockingbird-removed-virginia-schools-racist-language-harper-lee>
Dec 5, 2016 *...* *Harper Lee* and *Mark Twain's* literary classics were
removed from classrooms in Accomack County, in Virginia after a formal
complaint was made by the mother of a biracial teenager. At the centre of
the complaint was the use of the N-word, which appears frequently in both
titles. The woman who made the ..


On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 6:50 AM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Every time I read about one of these "banning" controversies, I am reminded
> of Jocelyn Chadwick's excellent essay in _Critical Insights: Adventures of
> Huckleberry Finn_  (Salem Press, 2017). Chadwick decries such efforts which
> are undertaken for "children who somehow require the aid of benevolent
> white and black critics to think and reflect for them."   Chadwick further
> states, "Today's students are proving more than capable of having these
> hard conversations; indeed, they flourish in them because they want to
> think and break apart and analyze and understand."  A highly recommended
> essay from an outstanding Mark Twain scholar for any school board wrestling
> with such issues.
>
> Barb
>



-- 
Arianne Laidlaw A '58