Should Huck Finn be studied in schools?

As a classical piece of American literature, Huck Finn is a book with many important and interesting themes that make this work a wonderful piece to be studied in school. Some people have raised objections that the book is offensive or even racist, but in the end this book was written in order to criticize racism and to show that African Americans are just as complex and human as anyone else. The major objection brought up by those that oppose the instruction of the book is the book's use of the "n" word. However, at the time in which the book was written, this word was a part of the everyday speech, and even though people normally excluded the word in polite conversation, there was nothing offensive about the overall use of the n word. Banning a book on that ground would be promoting ignorance to the fact that language changes and ignoring the context and style in which the book was written. Another objection is that this book promotes a negative stereotype of black people, showing Jim as someone who is superstitious, acts irrationally, and speaks in with little trace of correctness. However, all one must see to eliminate this idea is the first time that Huck finds Jim, and Jim talks all about his escape from society and the slave dealer. His clever method of escape and his ability to discern his need to get away show that he is not mindless, and his superstition is largely shared by the white characters in the book, especially the boys. As the book continues, Jim reveals himself as increasingly complex. As the two main characters, Huck and Jim are used by Mark Twain to criticize the state of society that he had experienced. The necessary inclusion of the details of the society, including the anti-black rant of Huck's father and the disdain that many had for slaves may be offensive to some people, but that is what made this piece of literature a classic and why the message in the book is indispensible. Rather than being a racist book, Twain attempts to show the tragedies that racism causes and show that there is little basis for racism at all. Of course some of the material might be offensive, for different reasons now than when the book was first published, but that makes Twain an original author and makes the book more valuable. If Twain could see the world today, he would likely be pleasantly shocked by the degree to which his message has been accepted by society and by the fact that his book, at first seen as sympathetic to African Americans, is now opposed on very different grounds.