The Culpepper County Public Schools has become the latest addition to the dubious list of schools banning Anne Frank’s ‘Diary of a Young Girl.” The move to pull the books from all of the shelves in the county reportedly came after one parent found a passage to be sexually explicit.
The version of the book pulled from Culpepper schools is “The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition.” This version contains passages that were edited out by Frank’s father, including her criticism of Jews living in the Jewish quarter and some sexual references. The offensive passage is:
There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can’t imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!
The book was assigned to eighth graders.
It is astonishing that a single parent can prompt a classic book to be pulled from shelves.
Jim Allen, director of instruction for the school system, views the whole matter as a wonderful reaffirmation of parental control: “I’m happy when parents get involved with these things because it lets me know that they are really looking and have their kids’ best interest (in mind). And that’s where good parenting and good teaching comes in.” I am not so sure that I would point to banning a book as good parenting and good teaching.
These students are about to go to high school and are exposed to far more explicit references in their daily lives. Anyone who views The Diary of a Young Girl as soft porn is missing the point when you dig through all of the Holocaust material to find the reference to a feminine body part.
For the full story, click here.
First, let me respond to Alan’s suggestion: “And come to think of it, the name of the state itself is “Virginia”! Maybe it should be banned!”
Definitely, Alan, Virginia should be banned. It was not just a slave state but a slave-producing state. It had a horrible record thereafter of being the home of institutionalized bigotry, ignorance and corruption. It lives up to its reputation on a daily basis.
OK, secondly: The Diary of Anne Frank is exactly what it purports to be. It is her diary. She lived. She died. She wrote down her thoughts and feelings. She was eloquent and courageous and she was precise and intelligent. Objecting to a paragraph of hers and therefore getting her book banned is an act not just of arrogance, ignorance and bullying, it is also an act of spiritual murder. This was a young girl. The book is her progeny, and the memorialization of her life, which was cut short because of arrogant, ignorant bullies. She described her vagina? Horror of Horrors! Why shouldn’t she? What part of her would make her want to ban her own reactions to the anatomy she was born with and that, if she were given a chance, she would have borne children with? And what would make people who want to understand who this girl was decide that what she wrote was taboo? Or that their own genital-free children should not understand this part of Anne Frank. Shame on them. Shame on that parent who got the book banned and shame on the school authorities who allowed this kind of behavior.
I WIN!
BYRON AND ELAINE: Your all wrong. Right b4 u read the diary of Anne Frank u take U.S history in which they go in depth(take up 2 quaters) about WW2 and the nazis.
Wow. Is it odd that I started learning about the holocaust in second grade?
Tootie, not all people consider the mere mention of a female body part a “vile thing.” It’s a part of human anatomy, nothing more. And as far as I’M concerned, sexually repressed “moralist” people DO contribute a great deal to the huge problem of teen pregnancy in America.
All of that aside, I find it rather absurd that a classic book like The Diary of Anne Frank was removed from a school library just because one over-the-top parent had a personal objection to it.
I bet that parent starts a lot of statements with “I’m not a racist, but…..”
VLF2112
There is no evidence that sexual repression causes any problems you might find disagreeable. You are just spreading a myth or making stuff up.
A contemporary of Freud(who developed the sexual repression theory you are likely referring to) name J.D. Unwin agreed with Freud too. Unwin was an anthropologist at Cambridge. He was not a religious man and had no interest in defending religion; but he was sure Freud was right that sexual repression led to psychological and social pathologies.
So Unwin surveyed the major and minor civilizations (about 80 of them) throughout history and was very surprised that history showed just the opposite of what he believed (and what Freud believed). It was the most sexually strict civilizations that expanded and prospered and the most sexually “free” ones than shriveled,languished, or died.
He became so convinced that this was an unquestionable historical fact, he suggested that the British people ought to have a select group of powerful couples in places of leadership who practiced monogamy and sexual fidelity so as to insure the vibrancy of the British people.
If we are to learn from history or have any respect for evidence, I don’t think this is a lesson we should fail to understand.
If we are to have any pride in our intelligence, I don’t think this is evidence we ought to ignore.
I don’t think other adults have a right to impose vile things on other peoples kids.
This book is at the public library and if people want to flash their own kids with such comments they are free to do so.
It is unproven notion, spread around recently by the Guttmacher folks who aren’t very unbiased about their activities, that the recent spike of teenage pregnancy is because of the abstinence “movement”.
The spike is most likely caused by the influx of immigrants, especially illegals. Hispanics, in particular, have a higher rate of child bearing, a higher rate of teen pregnancy (contributing more than any other group) and, oddly enough, a higher rate of abortions than whites.
If the Guttmacher theory was correct (and I say it isn’t) then how do they explain that the incidence of black teen pregnancy has gone down in the time period they claim abstinence is causing the rise overall?
This is a shameful effort by the Guttmacher people to smear the abstinence effort.
Take out the Hispanic stats, and there there is barely any rise with a very slight rise among whites and reduction among blacks.
Check out the facts here:
http://www.vdare.com/thom/090316_births.htm
And NO vdare is NOT a white supremacist organization despite the lies of the hate-mongers at the Southern Poverty Law Center. claim.
How anal can you be….
Culpepperians:
do you know that Montpellier and Monticello are near?
oops sorry I meant 13 and often 14 by the end of their 8th grade
Most 8th grader’s are either 14 or very close to it!
As a Limey I have to ask the question how old is an 8th grader? About the same age as Anne when she wrote her diaries perhaps?
This is one book that should be compulsory in ALL secondary schools.
Naked???? We were born naked??? Shhhh… better be careful the book burners may start visiting sites like this and start adding them to the parental control locked sites!!
tydf;)
You’ll also want to be removing “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451” from libraries as well.
When good ideas and art are banned, only criminals will have good ideas and art.
The Diary of Anne Frank?
Sexually explicit?
Canadian, Eh? is spot on to your sensibilities about Judy Blume.
And you better cancel the library subscription to National Geographic while you book banning twits are at it. Heaven Forbid! The childrens might learn they were all born naked!
Except for the Baby Jesus of course. He was born wearing an Armani swaddling cloth. Everyone knows this. Mary especially. (Can’t be read with enough sarcasm.)
Anon Yours:
I kind of got that part about the NEA when the great leader said over the summer “Money is Power.” Hmm, I always thought “knowledge was power.” But Heil NEA. I follow the reasoning “money is power. kids are money, etc.”
Why do I keep thinking Animal Farm? I’m sure that’s been permantly banned! I mean what with the innuendo of the farmer putting the hair ribbons in the pretty girl horse’s mane and all. And then all the beer drinking the pigs do toward the end. GASP! What if a fragile young mind were to read something like that?
That night I dreamed about Lisa. My dream went on and on. It started out when Lisa put her arm around me. Only in my dream she didn’t stop there. And Corky was in it too. She was sitting on the football field and Lisa kept saying, “You see, Corky… here’s what to do… to do… to do…”
“I am guessing that these parents would consider Judy Blume hard core porn”
LOL!
This director should be fired. I have to agree that one parent should not be able to stop an entire school district. Was this Parent a Republican Senator?
I first read Anne Frank at the age of 12, it was a Christmas gift from my very Catholic grandmother. I’ve lost count of how many times in my life I have read this classic, but most recenly I read it with my 12 year old son, my 14 year old son, and gave it as a gift to my niece when she was 13. Sexually explicit??? Not a chance! It’s a piece of literature that should continue to be passed down from generation to generation to educate the young about the horrors of the Holocaust. What better way to do this than through the eyes of a 13 year old girl?
I am guessing that these parents would consider Judy Blume hard core porn, but allow their children to watch MTV!