For high school teachers these are enigmatic times. Teachers want to prepare students for life in the real world, but balk at teaching them the truth of that world. The recent publication of a corrected "Huckleberry Finn," which replaced the word nigger with slave, touched a nerve. Is the point to safeguard the innocent or to make us feel we are responsible teachers, parents, and regulators? Challenging writing is neither safe nor politically correct, and teachers don't serve students well if they deny them access to it.