From the Core Knowledge blog we learn that ?purists? are ?predictably crying censorship and political correctness? about the news that a gang of nobodies has decided to, um, censor Twain's Huckleberry Finn in order to make it more, um, politically correct (one supposes that Core Knowledge's ?purists??is?equivalent to ?people who call things what they are?). But the noxious thing here isn't the censorship or political correctness?censorship and political correctness are no good but they?happen all the time. No, what's offensive is that a work of high art is being sullied. What's offensive is that a genius piece of literature whose chosen words are like a genius artist's chosen brushstrokes is having its words altered, removed. The Core Knowledge blog misses all this. While it is ?deeply sympathetic to the argument that protecting children from history is not a good idea? it?expresses no sympathy for the more-basic, fundamental argument that screwing with art is not okay. Core Knowledge writes that
if one word is the difference between kids reading Twain's influential classic or not, then ?sanitizing? the text for contemporary sensibilities seems not too high a price to pay.? The book and its powerful themes speak for themselves and have lost none of their power or relevance.
Several problems. Number One: The authors of the Core Knowledge blog do not get to decide what sort of despoiling of Huckleberry Finn is and is not ?too high a price to pay?; they do not get to decide whether the book's ?powerful themes? remain untouched by changing a few words here and there. Number Two: Works of art do not exist as teaching tools?which is to say, more specifically, that their primary or even vigenary purpose is not to help fourth graders learn. Thus, arguing that modifying art will help fourth graders learn is no justification for such modification. Number Three: This is what is so often wrong with education policy, isn't it? The misty ends forever justify the means. In an epic quest to instruct every pupil to some mythic level of erudition, anything goes. In the real world, it's laughable to assert that messing with masterpieces is okay so long as the masterpieces will then make it into more curricula. Welcome to another world: the crazy, insulated?world of education policy.
?Liam Julian, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow