A school in Culpepper County, Va. decided to stop teaching a version of Anne Frank’s diary at the end of January because a parent complained about the class reading the book’s sexually explicit and homosexual themes aloud.
The Washington Post published a story about the decision on Jan. 29. By Feb. 2 the decision was retracted not because it was the wrong decision, but because the complaint had not gone through the proper channels.
I remember reading “The Diary of Anne Frank” when I was in middle school, and I must admit, I was taken aback by what I read in some passages. I had never before read about the awakening desires of a teenage girl, and at the time I had no desires of my own to speak of. But I don’t remember the content being a point of contention in my education.
Now that I’m a parent, I would not want my daughter to learn about those kinds of things until she was ready, or at least until I thought she was ready. I’m not sure how appropriate it is for a 12 year old to read about a teenage girl’s inner-most desires. Heck, I’m not sure it’s appropriate for anyone to read about a teenager’s desires.
However, it is precisely Anne’s honesty and candor that makes her story endure, and I wouldn’t want my daughter to miss out on it. Without such passages, it’s difficult to see Anne as anything other than a clean-cut girl that had something terrible happen to her. The content in question makes her relatable to teens and adults alike.
As nervous as it would make me, I would let her read every word of Anne Frank’s diary, even the explicit ones, so long as she knew what she was getting into. I hope the Culpepper County school system makes the same decision.