School system in Va. won't teach version of Anne Frank book

[PreachersWife2004]

Ah, the US education system, Leading the world!

Culpeper County =/= US Education system.

Just sayin'.

 

[SpiritualAntiseptic]

This is what you get with public education, everyone has to be happy. If we had government-back private schools, people could choose how and where their kids were educated.

 

[Rochir]

Culpeper County =/= US Education system.

Just sayin'.

No? To which country does Culpeper Co. belong then?

 

[PreachersWife2004]

No? To which country does Culpeper Co. belong then?

It's not the US Dept of Ed (aka the US Educational System) that's making this decision. It's the COUNTY. Surely you understand the difference and wouldn't make the mistake of assuming that the whole system is screwy because of this county's actions.

 

[Rochir]

It's not the US Dept of Ed (aka the US Educational System) that's making this decision. It's the COUNTY. Surely you understand the difference and wouldn't make the mistake of assuming that the whole system is screwy because of this county's actions.

The system, is screwy because it allows counties to make such abhorrible choices when it comes to the contents of what is being taught in school.

 

[keith99]

Poor girl. Anne Frank was a young teenager and yet she has become the poster child for the holocaust. I don't think in a million years would she (or her family) have assumed her diary would become such a controversial work. In Germany the book is censored to the point where school children don't even know the circumstances surrounding Anne going into hiding. There is no mention of hiding from the Nazis. Lebanon and Italy have also banned the book. Italy due to what they consider "sexually explicit" passages and Lebanon because they claim the book promotes Zionism. It's actually a quite frequently banned book around the world.

Anyway, this situation in Culpeper County, VA is asinine. These are eighth graders, not first graders. I'd rather fourteen year olds read about sexuality in the context of a historical work rather than learn about it by watching MTV. If an eighth grader isn't supposed to read the word "vagina" or know about masturbation and homosexuality I shudder to think of where they will learn about such things. Locker room education on human sexuality isn't exactly ideal.

You really should not lie on the internet. There are people like me who can with one phonecall check with real Germans. The closest to censorship of this work would be 'easy reader' version for younger children. In Germany it is often read by far yuonger people than in the U.S.

 

[Rochir]

You really should not lie on the internet. There are people like me who can with one phonecall check with real Germans. The closest to censorship of this work would be 'easy reader' version for younger children. In Germany it is often read by far yuonger people than in the U.S.

German here and verifying!

 

[lordbt]

The system, is screwy because it allows counties to make such abhorrible choices when it comes to the contents of what is being taught in school.

Who should make such decisions? Some education czar? What if he made this type of bad decision and the entire country had to live with it? Would that be better?

 

[citizenthom]

I'm still waiting for someone to answer my question, which is certainly a prerequisite to calling this a "horrible" educational decision.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

The system, is screwy because it allows counties to make such abhorrible choices when it comes to the contents of what is being taught in school.

I'd rather have counties/cities/districts in charge rather than one large entity. The NEA is bad enough.

No, it's screwy because some parent in Culpeper County got hot and bothered about what their kid was reading, and probably riled up the neighbors too. People probably signed petitions thinking "what is the world coming to??!" while they themselves haven't even read the book.

 

[keith99]

Exactly what educational value is there in the passages about Anne Frank's sexual desires?

None, at least as long as they give rise ot controversy. In fact I would argue that in a setting where they are controversial they draw focus away from the things that make it something worth reading.

Now in a society where they where they had no 'shock value' I would argue that they are useful as they huminize Anne Frank and make her a more real and well rounded figure. They make her more a real person, like the students reading the work. But in a society where such things are not talked about it works in the exact opposite manner, it makes her strange and different.

 

[CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN]

deleted

 

[oldbetang]

washingtonpost.com
Seriously? :o

Big deal. If her father thought it best to censor parts of it, then that's good enough for me.

 

[Nooj]

So teaching kids about the Holocaust, one of the worst atrocities ever inflicted by humans upon other humans, is a-okay, but the musings of a teenage girl on sex and her reproductive organs is not okay?

I've read the definitive edition which included the unedited bits. They can handle it. Truth be told, I can't even remember any shocking bits.

 

[citizenthom]

So teaching kids about the Holocaust, one of the worst atrocities ever inflicted by humans upon other humans, is a-okay, but the musings of a teenage girl on sex and her reproductive organs is not okay?

Yes. It's the government's place to show kids the Holocaust and lead them to think a certain way about it (it was bad). It's not the government's place to tell kids how to feel about their--or anyone else's--genitalia. One is educational, one is not.

 

[Nooj]

Yes. It's the government's place to show kids the Holocaust and lead them to think a certain way about it (it was bad). It's not the government's place to tell kids how to feel about their--or anyone else's--genitalia. One is educational, one is not.

The government, schools, teachers and most importantly Anne Frank are not telling you how to feel about your genitals. I recommend you read her diary and see what she actually wrote.

Anne Frank didn't write a diary to tell kids living in the 21st century how to have sex. She just writes about what her genitals look like. BIG DEAL. I learned all that in sex ed class. If kids can learn about babies being tossed into fires in Elie Wiesel's Night, they can handle a description of vaginas.

I think a lot of people forget that Anne Frank is not a literary creation. She was once a living, breathing adolescent. Yes she writes about menstruation, yes she writes about God and religion, friends, her bitterness to her mother, family feuds, romance, sex, violence and all that. Sanitising her life won't help kids identify with her.

Oh, and when I was in high school, we watched Schindler's List. I remember there was extreme violence as well as nudity. Should we stop high school students from watching that? After all, we don't want kids looking at breasts and people's brains being blown out, do we? They couldn't possibly handle that.

 

[kiwimac]

But...But...This is America! Won't someone think of the children?

 

[citizenthom]

Oh, and when I was in high school, we watched Schindler's List. I remember there was extreme violence as well as nudity. Should we stop high school students from watching that?

Possibly, yes. Teachers weren't allowed to show rated "R" movies at my HS, for instance, without prior approval.

Also, you, like another poster, insist that the value is in "identifying" with Anne Frank. "Identifying" with her has nothing to do with the historical educational purpose of the book, just the literary purpose. So you're making the case that it might belong in a college English class, but that's not the question here.