OPINION: "The Diary of Anne Frank" is not inappropriate, but rather realistic and relatable

Just to add some background, Anne Frank was a teenage girl who lived during the time of the Holocaust. She died from typhus while in Auschwitz, a concentration camp to which she was deported after she spent a period of her life hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex now known as the “Anne Frank House.” She was survived only by her father, Otto Frank, who returned to their former home to find the incredibly accurate and powerful diary she kept while in hiding. She repeated throughout her writings that she longed to be an author, so he published the diary in her name; the book has grown into a renowned first hand tale of a young girl’s innermost thoughts during the Holocaust. 

 

The diary was kept while Anne was undergoing puberty. Thus, there are a few detailed passages in which she explores her own body and sexuality, which is what has struck the attention of the Michigan mother. The sections, however, are not remotely pornographic and use only technical terms for the female body. This is also part of the seventh grade curriculum, two years after most students in US public schools have taken a sex education class. It concerns me greatly that this Michigan mother believes a book should be banned because it shows a young girl learning about her body. It concerns me even more greatly that she is more shocked by the use of anatomical terms than she is by the events of the brutal Holocaust the diary is based upon. 

 

I don’t know what world this woman believes their child is growing up in, but it is definitely not a world in which people do not notice their own gender. I am completely flabbergasted that this is the reason she would want "The Diary of Anne Frank" banned. We should embrace that our children are being introduced to one of the most terrible events in our history, the Holocaust, and we should use this as an opportunity to show them that sick things happen in the world. 

 

Frank received her diary when she was thirteen, just around the age of these seventh graders. Therefore, they can easily develop a connection with her and grow informed and empowered to make the world a better place. Sheltered kids grow into ignorant adults, something of which the world does not need more.