They Said What?

I'm trying to instill in the boys a joy of us reading together as a family.  A couple of times a year I read some classic to them - this time last year it was Charlotte's Web.  Now we're deciding whether to start The Bridge to Terabithia or The Swiss Family Robinson.

Last night we finished the seasonally appropriate The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was a difficult read. Interestingly, the style in which Washington Irving wrote focused far more on setting the scene than the exciting climactic action. The actual Ichabod / Horseman encounter is less than three pages of the 25-page story. It was also filled with complex sentences and various clauses. There's no way a kid could actually read it. In fact, I was less narrator of this book and far more interpreter.

So, "Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the state parlor of Van Tassel's Manor.  Not those of the bevy of buxom lasses, with their luxurious display of red and white: but the ample charms of a genuine Dutch country tea table, in the sumptuous time of autumn" became, "When Ichabod went into Van Tassel's house, he didn't notice all the pretty girls. He was only interested in all the food on the table."

But one word caught me off guard: Negro. As it stumbled awkwardly off of my lips, the boys asked me what it meant. I explained that it was a very old term to describe a black person. Perhaps it was the way I said it, but both of the boys were aghast at how it sounded.

"Why not just black?" and "Why not African American?" were soon asked. My response was simply that it was the word people used when the story was written, but we don't ever use it today. They both thought for a second and then Gus asked me to please use "black" in place of "negro" for the rest of the story.  So I did.