• The graphic novel, written by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky, adapts the diary of 13-year-old Anne Frank, who wrote while hiding in an annexe in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Eighth-grade students were reportedly shown a section of the graphic novel where Frank reflected on her own genitals and wanted to see a female friend’s breasts, according to KFDM.

    So basically exactly like all of the 13 yr olds in the class, who are probably taught at home how their body parts are shameful.

    • Were they specifically shown just that part? Or was it part of reading the entire thing? I could see how the first scenario would be a bit odd and would like more context but if it’s just in the book they were reading then this article is kind of misleading.

      Also agree with you that this is totally normal thing for 8th graders to think about… the book was written by someone their own age for fucks sake.

    • Because you are rooted there, you care about the people around you, and you want to improve things in your community. Not everyone is willing to just give up and leave their community to fascists.

  •  Yerbouti   ( @Yerbouti@lemmy.ml ) 
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    LOL, tell me II have to check if a book is approve before talking about it and it and I will resign on spot. I’m dead serious. Conservatives seem to see in schools ans teachers the new enemy. Teaching is an already shitty under-paid job, I suggest they stop pushing against people who take care of their spoiled stupid kids 40 hours a week, unless they want to take care of education themself.

  • Glad I read the article. She wasn’t fired for showing the book to hers students. She was fired for showing an unapproved book (which I then assume is not in the 8th grade curriculum) to her students. Teaching outside the curriculum is generally a big no no.

    The question should be, why is that book not approved? That’s a rhetorical question btw.

    •  StringTheory   ( @StringTheory@beehaw.org ) 
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      Despite claims by school officials that the adaptation had not been approved, KFDM notes that the book “was on a reading list sent to parents at the start of the school year,” so the district’s suggestion that the teacher “went rogue” seems…not true at all in the, y’know, actual sense of the word. A source close to the teacher told KFDM that the school’s principal had approved a syllabus that included the book. “There is an active investigation,” Mike Canizales, a spokesperson for the Hamshire-Fannett ISD, told the outlet.

      https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/09/texas-school-fires-teacher-over-anne-frank-graphic-novel

      • Interesting. Could be some left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing stuff. I don’t want to imply malicious intent when blantent incompetence is just as likely. If this book was approved, but accidentally left off the official curriculum, then the teacher should obviously get their job back.

        • Why the fuck do books need to be approved? Is that a common thing in the US?

          In Canada, I’ve never checked a text with my principal before assigning it.

          The curriculum does not list approved resources; teachers are professionals who are trained to select appropriate materials to cover the material.

          • Higher ups that make way more than the actual teachers some having never taught a day in their life’s make decisions on what should be taught and how.

            I left my education major behind cause I saw the state of how school districts in most states were being handled.

          • Well, no. A core curriculum is approved for each grade. Now I don’t know if it’s so specific that it’s broken down to every book. I would definitely like to get some more details on this particular situation. This book banning thing is getting out of hand.

  • This is the best summary I could come up with:


    A Texas teacher was fired after assigning an illustrated adaptation of Anne Frank’s diary to her middle school class, in a move that some are calling “a political attack on truth”.

    The graphic novel, written by Ari Folman and illustrated by David Polonsky, adapts the diary of 13-year-old Anne Frank, who wrote while hiding in an annexe in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

    Eighth-grade students were reportedly shown a section of the graphic novel where Frank reflected on her own genitals and wanted to see a female friend’s breasts, according to KFDM.

    Discussions of sexuality were included in the original written version of Anne Frank’s diary, but were edited out in subsequent reprints.

    A Florida high school removed the graphic novel after a chapter of Moms for Liberty, an extremist advocacy group, objected to the book’s sexual contents and claimed it did not teach the Holocaust accurately, the Associated Press reported.

    The Republican governor, Greg Abbott, signed legislation in 2021 severely limiting how educators can teach topics of race and gender.


    The original article contains 519 words, the summary contains 168 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!