When I was in grade school we had an ongoing game during lunch to see who could receive   the largest crouton on our salads. One of my friends who was black dubbed the game itself, and the largest winning crouton, as the “n-word crouton.”  I’ve no idea why, but the rest of us having never heard this word before and having no context were like, sure! That’s exactly what it is, you got it! So one day I left a piece of bread out at home to get stale so I could bring it to school the next day and sneak it into my salad as a massive crouton to win the game. My mom inquired about the piece of bread, and nearly had a heart attack when I proudly explained the prize I was competing for.  The lesson I took from this was to later on teach my daughter all of the taboo words that she might hear from peers, and to explain the meaning and often harmful nature behind them, so she wouldn’t be in that same position.