Dear Dennis, I didn't say high school students were not capable, but that many high school teachers are not prepared to teach the novel. Many are, and increasingly, particularly after the work of Jocelyn Chadwick, the teaching of the novel is changing, and this is encouraging. I draw this conclusion from speaking with students at Stanford and SF State about their experiences of the novel in high school. Most Stanford students come either from excellent high schools, such as Lowell, or take the advanced courses in an otherwise typical high school, and many of them come with excellent experiences with the book and excited to read it again and go further. However, even with that sample, I have come across many students who, reading HF in high school, did not have discussions about the nature of slavery, about the use of the word nigger, or about other social dynamics (such as the status of Pap and Huck). Many get warmed-over TS Eliot, talk about the symbolism of the river, and other insights, which, while valuable and valid, leave the explosive and exciting quality of the book to drift on its own, and sometimes I have been told of incidents in which Black students have been targeted or in other ways victimized. When I taught as visiting faculty at SF State, the reports of incidences of the negative teaching of the book were more pronounced -- I suspect because most SF State students do not have the experience of exceptional high schools or classrooms that Stanford students do. Also, while many high school curricula have presented broader literary experiences involving slavery and race -- such as reading Douglass along with HF -- for many students HF is the only book they read that engage with these issues. Of course, my assessment is based on a limited sample, and others can add their experiences. Nor does this mean that there aren't problems in the way the novel is taught in colleges. Also, Dennis, you might describe the ways you teach the novel, how it works in the curriculum, and your experiences to add to the discussion. Hilton Obenzinger Stanford University