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