amateur hour, daft cow played right in to his hands.

it is the unavoidable point if you insist English Lit should avoid difficult topics in order to instil the joy of reading, because literature is filled with harrowing stories of people behaving inhumanely towards one another.

at the same time, arguing that difficult topics should not be avoided but taught carefully, does not mean i do not empathise with those affected.

OPs question suggests there was at least some illusion !

if we're only reading about rainbows and unicorns, it certainly thins the library.

the idea that a cabal of mods were going to take things in a good direction was always unsound

I can see why, only if it is still being taught as it was 30 years ago - ie without addressing the language used - and I hope thats not the case. I can't imagine anyone doing so in 2023.

If you start pulling stuff for those reasons (and for the record, I dont understand why they are still reading Steinbeck anyway) you go down a slightly dodgy path.

is there a better place, to learn and discuss racial slurs and the significance of the word, than in a class room ?

or should they learn it from rap music ? where it's thrown around liberally like punctation, with no information about why it is the word that it is ?