Culpepper Virginia schools pull the Diary of Anne Frank!

Baning of books begins the process of mind control.

So happy you all care so much to read and comment. I agree with all of of you, especially jubiejanks. I also agree if a school is worried about the material, then teach it in a higher reading level, don't censor!! The father may have censored the book long ago, but it's up to today's teachers to include the real book in their curriculum when they had the option.

Perhaps I am mistaken, but there seems to be be a bit of confusion among some of the people on this thread. The Diary of Anne Frank is still part of the curriculum for eighth graders at this school...just not the most sexually explicit version of the book.

That said, I nonetheless concur with what appears to be the consensus here that there should be a very strong presumption AGAINST censorship and that this presumption should be overcome only when there is a clear and compelling reason for it...and even THEN it should be done surgically. So, for example, if this book were taught to THIRD or FOURTH graders instead of eighth graders, I could perhaps see a few sentences being left out or provided separately to parents so they could decide for themselves whether their children were sufficiently mature to handle the bit of additional material.

But I have a difficult time imagining American eighth graders who would be shocked or somehow emotionally scarred by this kind of content. My wife called me into the living room last night to ask me what I thought about some reality TV show about some women in Orange County? I was able to watch almost five whole minutes before I ran screaming into the night...the unedited version of Anne Frank's diary was almost certainly tame by comparison...

According to the linked article, the full version of Anne Frank's diary will not be used. Instead, the school will use an edited version. Why? Because some stupid parent was concerned "over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition." Are you kidding me?? What world do you live in where you shield your child from sex?? Kids are growing up faster than ever, both physically and mentally. My own niece stopped playing with Barbies when she was about 4, and although she's still in the sixth grade, has already started her period. Now I'm not here to embarrass my niece lol, but children are receiving sexual education as early as fifth grade, and you're worried about the sexual nature of a maturing girl's diary read by an eighth grader? Parents need to stop trying to protect their damn kids all the time.

I can't believe this. This is a great way that youth are able to feel tangible connection to such a devastation and violation of humanity. Her story is valuable and should be allowed to be read. Banning books doesn't help, and banning this robs students of knowledge of a time period extremely relevant to the United States and to the Jewish community.

On the contrary randallr01, I read the article, and it did not imply what the complainants political persuasion were, only that parental concerns were weighed in the censoring process. . . If anything, you'd probably have better placed the blame on the liberal progressive multi-cultural political correctness mania which is so readily embraced by the demoncrats. . . just saying.

This is just another example of how sex-obsessed conservatives are.

Such an insensitive approach. Let this young girl's spirit live... the good and the bad (?).

It's difficult for a loving father to read such things of his own daughter, mind you, but his daughter's thoughts and impressions were hers.

Censorship/banning has no place in this world.

How can they pull such a beautifully written book from their school? So it's not all sunshine and rainbows It was written by young girl! Adolescence is can be hard enough by it's self but to go though it in hiding is something I can't even imagine

Simple, I do not believe in banning books!