While publishers can and do print anything these days without much fear of censorship, the question of what kind of books schoolchildren should be permitted to read arouses as much rancor and righteousness as ever. Some prudes are shocked that students should be exposed to the earthy bawdiness of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Negroes protest the "Uncle Tomism" of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn; reactionaries worry about left-wing interpretations in history texts. According to a recent survey by the National Education Association, 334 books on class reading lists or in school libraries were...
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