PARKERSBURG - Revised editions of a Mark Twain classic are unlikely to appear in area schools anytime soon.
Officials with Wood County Schools say there has been little to no discussion concerning a revised combined edition of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" published by NewSouth that removes a derogatory term for blacks, substituting the word "slave," in 219 references.
The book also removes a derogatory word used for American Indians.
Wood County Schools officials say schools are unlikely to adopt a newly revised version of Mark Twain classics “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” The revised version removes racial slurs in favor of more politically correct language.
Proponents for the revisions argue the use of racial slurs in Twain's works often leads to those books being banned in schools and libraries. Proponents also argue the damage caused by such slurs outweighs their historical use.
Critics of the revisions argue Twain's use of the racial slur was deliberately used to illustrate the attitudes of the day. Twain was well-noted as having a hatred of racism and slavery, and often used his works to point out inequalities and to lampoon slave owners and racists.
Debby Lamp, coordinator of media and technology for Wood County Schools, said there has been no discussion among the county's school librarians concerning the book, even though most of the libraries carry some edition of the Mark Twain stories.
"We haven't had any discussion of it," she said, adding the previous editions "haven't been an issue."
"I think it was written for that time, and I don't think it should be changed," she said. "We have read the story this way for years and years and years. That was how people thought during that time and that was how Mark Twain wrote it."
Likewise Judy Johnson, director of curriculum for Wood County Schools, said there has been little discussion among English teachers concerning the revised edition or its use in schools.
Johnson said some teachers are still using the novels in classrooms and copies can be found in most middle and high school libraries.
Elizabeth Morgan, an English teacher and head of the English department at Williamstown High School, said both "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" are used as supplemental reading materials for the school's 11th-grade English classes. In both cases the students read the original works.
"The time period in which Twain wrote, the words and terminology were what everyone used," she said. "It is up to the teacher to present the cultural time period and prepare the class for the derogatory names and the language that was more common in that day."
Morgan said using Twain's original words both allows teachers to teach students some more difficult lessons and to keep intact Twain's original meaning.
"I do think there are teachable moments where you can take these difficult times in our past and discuss them and maybe even apply them to difficult situations today," she said. Twain "was pretty liberal in his time, and I think he was doing this in part to shock people in his time and make them realize this wasn't how things should be."
Lamp said Twain's subtle sense of humor combined with a portrait of the time period in which the book was written provide valuable lessons for students and should not be set aside.
"I don't think you should give up on a whole book because of one little thing in there," she said. "That doesn't make the whole thing bad.
"I don't want to offend anyone either," she said, "but I still think it is practically criminal to take a work and redo it."