“Goodness gracious, is dat you, Huck? En you ain’ dead – you ain’ drownded – you’s back agin? It’s too good for true, honey, it’s too good for true. Lemme look at you chile, lemme feel o’ you. No, you ain’ dead! you’s back agin, ‘live en soun’, jis de same ole Huck – de same ole Huck, thanks to goodness!” (15.19)
A teacher’s aid in Dubuque, Iowa was recently fired for telling students that Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is raaaaacist. When I see reports like this it really makes me wonder who is teaching our kids and where they were educated. This lady obviously has never read the book or has a learning disorder. Anyone who has read Twain’s masterpiece knows that it is a poignant statement against racism.
A teaching associate at a private school in Dubuque has been fired for allegedly disrupting classes by telling students that “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a “racist” novel.
Naiya Galloway, 31, was fired by Hillcrest Family Services, a privately run K-12 school that is certified by the Iowa Department of Education through the Dubuque public schools. The school helps students who have mental health issues or behavior problems.
Galloway was employed by the school for six months in 2011, monitoring children in the classroom and helping with student discipline. According to state records made public last month, Galloway became upset one day when the teacher in her classroom mentioned the Ku Klux Klan in a discussion of historical and political events.
According to school officials, Galloway allegedly announced to a classroom full of students in October that Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was a racist book and should not be taught in schools. The next day, she was on a school bus with students when she allegedly renewed her criticism of the book as “racist,” forcing the bus driver to intervene, according to state records. School officials alleged she voiced objections to the book on numerous other occasions.
Well, she was fired so it was a happy ending. Had it been a public school she would have been promoted.
@ MacDuff:
Huck sez “don’t mess with Huck”.
I’m your huckleberry.
When she gets “flashbacks” from KKK discussions because of her heritage (Black and Japanese)…she’s got a real problem and it isn’t the historical text either. I hope she gets help.
Not my favorite Twain read, but certainly not racist. One of the most commonly banned books in America, according to the ALA. I suspect it’s a very rarely assigned book these days. I don’t recall ever being assigned any Twain, which is astounding, really. Read it all on my own, starting in the 7th grade when a teached loaned me a copy of “Life on the Mississippi.” My favorite American author, and in my Top 5 of people I would want to meet if Mr. Peabody loaned me the keys to The Wayback Machine.