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.
I agree with the suggestion that this parent’s kid should be assigned another book, another version of some oppressed person’s struggles, like Mein Kampf.
Alternatively, just don’t allow the school library to let the kid check out the book.
I wonder, if a parent complains about the ABSENCE of a book, do all the schools in the county immediately put it on the shelves?
Guess this must be the “real America” Sarah Palin was talking about when she came to Virginia. Totalitarian governments have always embraced just one “true” book or set of books derived from it. Mein Kamph, Mao’s Little Red Book, Kapital, whatever crap Kim Jong-il dictates…The Bible… etc. So glad I live in an enlightened country like America where we can choose to read any of the books that have ever been written if we want to. Even Huckleberry Finn with all those pesky uses of “n” word or Romeo and Juliet with all that teenage sex going on.
Byron–
How do I know for sure you were kidding about S&V in myths? Do you remember the movie Dr. Strangelove? You COULD be some kind of “deviated prevert!”
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The Culpeper school system didn’t follow its own district’s policy.
From another article about the removal of the Anne Farnk book:
School system in Va. won’t teach version of Anne Frank book
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 29, 2010
Culpeper’s policy on “public complaints about learning resources” calls for complaints to be submitted in writing and for a review committee to research the materials and deliberate, Allen said. In this case, the policy was not followed. Allen said the parent registered the complaint orally, no review committee was created and a decision was made quickly by at least one school administrator. He said he is uncertain about the details because he was out of town.
“The person came in, and the decision was made that day . . . and that’s fine. We would like to have had it in writing. It just did not happen,” Allen said.
Hasty decisions to restrict access to some books do “a disservice to students,” said Angela Maycock, assistant director of the office for intellectual freedom at the American Library Association.
“Something that one individual finds controversial or offensive or objectionable may be really valuable to other learners in that community,” she said.
The ALA has documented only six challenges to “The Diary of Anne Frank” since it began monitoring formal written complaints to remove or restrict books in 1990. Most of the concerns were about sexually explicit material, Maycock said. One record dating to 1983 from an Alabama textbook committee said the book was “a real downer” and called for its rejection from schools.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/28/AR2010012804001.html?g=0
You have a preference in where you wish to live, Ya? Then please live in your states of denials. Life would be better for you, if you knew nothing of the past.
This was only a momentary displeasure for the benefit of many.
I am advocating Free Speech for the Masses at Mass if you prefer.
That is a Good job that you are doing Duh. You do keep gassed up.
Elaine:
I was joking about the Myths, I am sure some parent would have a problem with them.
If I was the superintendent I would probably be afraid for my job in this climate. So I guess you cant blame him for putting a “spin” on it. All in all though, it was a mistake to give in to the forces of ignorance and mysticism.
I am glad I was not in that position. Hopefully the person will be shunned in their community. Although I doubt it.
Banning books is a very scary thing. Whenever I see the film of the Nazis and their night of burning books, it really bothers me on a very elemental level, and I am a conservative.
Gee, the Nazi’s banned books.
The Nazi’s persecuted and murdered Anne Frank.
And now the Culpepper School district is banning Anne Franks book.
Small world.
Byron–
My point about the sex and violence: Some parent would challenge the literature on that basis. While you may consider the S&V in myhology good–I’m sure there are many parents who would not.
I read the Anne Frank book when I was about fourteen. It helped me to better understand what life was like for Jews under the Nazi regime. Maybe most thirteen-year-olds won’t comprehend the larger historical text fully–but they’ll get an in-depth feel for what life was like for Anne Frank and some understanding of life under Nazi occupation. Frank’s book is the kind of story that helps history come alive for kids.
When I was teaching, we talked about something called “scaffolding”–teachers building up children’s knowledge of subjects by layers. It was a gradual process. We didn’t wait until they were seniors in high school and decide they were finally old enough and mature enough to fully understand and learn about Hitler, Nazis, and the Holocaust–or other difficult subjects–and start teaching such things from scratch.
Elaine:
that is good sex and violence, like a James Bond novel it is all gratuitous. 🙂
Will it? Can you understand what Anne Frank was going through without having an understanding of the larger context? I think you need to have a greater understanding of the whole Nazi regime than you could get from any material that would be understood by an 8th grader.
The larger theme of Anne Frank is the individuals relationship to the state when the state has devolved into an entity that has no respect for individuals. I think that may be a concept that is hard for an 8th grader to understand.
… no step forward, two steps backward
Byron–
Greek Mythology? Isn’t there a lot of sex and violence included in the myths?
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Children can learn a lot about life and about history from reading books. Children in 8th grade are at the right emotional level to relate to Anne Frank and to the story she tells. In addition, many teachers don’t have students read books like Frank’s without providing them with background knowledge. Young people will have a better understanding of what life was like under Nazi occupation from reading Frank’s book than from reading a history book.
Personally I think 8th graders should be reading something else. They need to have a bit more understanding of how bad the NAZI Party was before they read the Diary of Anne Frank. I don’t think you can really appreciate that book until you understand the horror they perpetrated against humanity.
It would be like reading Wuthering Heights without having been in love. A good story but what is the point?
Heathcliff on socialism:
“‘I seek no revenge on you,’ replied Heathcliff, less vehemently. . . Having levelled my palace, don’t erect a hovel and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home. . .'”
– Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Ch. 11
How about some Greek Mythology or Treasure Island?
“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.”
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So Jim Allen thinks it’s fine if the opinion of a single parent can be the deciding factor in whether or not an entire grade of students reads a particular book. Shouldn’t the parents who think the book is appropriate reading for their children have a say in the school district’s decision? If a parent objects to his/her child reading “The Diary of of A Young Girl: The Definitive Edition”–let his/her child read another edition.
I know libraries are supposed to have policies that they follow when a person challenges a book on their shelves. It sounds as if this school system didn’t follow any kind of policy in addressing the challenge made to this particular book that was on the district’s required reading list.
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From the Web site of the American Library Association:
“A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice. The ALA promotes the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinions even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those viewpoints to all who wish to read them.”
http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/index.cfm
With parents like this, is it any wonder that we have to be the most sexually-repressed country in the world?
I fear these kids are told that masturbation causes blindness, and you can get pregnant from a toilet seat, but anal sex protects your virginity.
Simone B.,
The problem with the NEA is it a union that has had a monopoly (GOP) thinking in the schools. Most of what has come out of title IX funding has been to bust the union not entitlement for the children that it is designed to serve.
For a while I worked for an Education Association. I have seen single handedly how a Policy of a Governor intent on destroying the Union so that the Insurance Dollars can be opened up to there pet donors.
The controlled liquor was privatized for a mere 26 million dollars about 10 years ago. Too bad I did not have 26 to spend. The first years return to the purchaser was over 54 million, not a bad investment.
Parental control? Guess this story is an indication of the inconsistencies across school boards.
At my district, the kids aren’t taught about the Holocaust until high school. Then they are taught it is a theory that some people accept and others do not! I’m the lone wolf parent with zero control.
I’d still like the NEA to come up with some ‘standardized’ programs for all school districts. I foresee my school district making it in the Race to the Top where 100% of the children believe the Holocaust is a theory. Give me a break!
Swarthmore mom,
My father told me it was alright to date a nun, as long as I didn’t get in the habit.
Teen pregnancies are now going up again. I think you can attribute it to these abstinence only people. I read this book in my catholic grade school along time ago. The nuns recommended it.
I am gonna say it. But Alan if they aren’t made aware of the way baby’s are birthed, you know we could end up with an over abundance of Politicians and Attorneys. Think about the consequences
mespo, There are two types of prostitute in the Bible. One, the regular kind for survival. The second, often called a “sacred” or “temple” prostitute, was a female or a male who had sex with worshipers of a god or goddess in a temple.
Maybe, just maybe they should just ban the Bible as well….
As a native Virginian, I see a silver lining in this rather dark story. I find it very gratifying that at least one parent in Culpepper has finally read something that wasn’t in the cartoon section of the newspaper.
Now, if they’d just get those graphic passages out of the Bible or ban it altogether. That Culpepper banner likely has never read this passage:
“…and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions.” (Ezekiel 23: 21, NRSV)
OMG! Worse yet, some of the students in the class might actually have vaginas. And some may have been born out of vaginas. Maybe they should all be banned, too! And come to think of it, the name of the state itself is “Virginia”! Maybe it should be banned!