Texas teacher fired for showing Anne Frank graphic novel to eighth-graders
Texas teacher fired for showing Anne Frank graphic novel to eighth-graders
Move comes as education laws restricting teaching of race, sexuality and other topics are being implemented across the US
It's perplexing how a nation that once liberated the world from fascism is now becoming fascist and triggering fascist movements worldwide.
Note that prior to getting involved in the war, there was substantial support for the Nazis among Americans. It's always been there. It just got swept under the carpet for a few decades, though if you go back and look at the politics of the fifties, you'll see mcarthyism and all sort of court cases on indecency and lots and lots of violence against homosexuals.
I don't think I spelled mcarthyism correctly. It's early and I'm not inclined to bother spell checking.
a nation that once liberated the world from fascism
It's gross how USAins keep parroting this nationalistic bullshit about their role in ww2.
You guys didn't liberate anything by showing up late for the war, and you tried your damnedest to spread your abhorrent racism in every country you landed in.
Yeah, nah. You had it right up until we didnt help liberate anything. France seemed pretty appreciative of our help then and now. Not arguing the "abhorrent racism" par it is true and we're continually working on it. Generational issues don't get solved overnight.
Stopping fascism wasn't the point. After liberating the camps, they even threw the homosexuals right back in. (Source)
They were just worried that the USSR was going to beat them to Berlin, and then keep going across the entirety of Europe. Likely a valid concern, to be fair.
While a romantic prose, I wouldn't go saying they liberated the world of anything like that until it was almost too late.
But when they finally did fight, fuck yeah, they fought.
I love it, objected to by "Moms for Liberty". I guess that works in fascist land where words mean the opposite of what they are.
And leave it to one of these bullshit 'Liberty' or 'Patriot' organizations to completely distract from the point that Anne Frank was a teenage girl growing up in an attic, hiding from an insanely hateful political group/police who wanted to kill her and her entire family."Moms for Liberty" is a straight up hate group. Like, I'm not doing that hyperbole thing. They are racist bigot fascists dead set on white, straight supremacy.
I should build a special little bookshelf with books banned by moms for liberty just for my kids.
Edit: talked to my SO, we're going to do a Little Free Library of them
Every teacher in that school should read that book to their class in protest.
They'd fire every single teacher. These are Republicans - they don't want kids getting good educations cause your average educated person doesn't vote Republican
They specifically don’t want good sex educate, because that teaches about consent, instead of ownership
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.
From an interview with David Polonsky, the illustrator:
In illustrating those more sensitive pages, Polonsky says he took great care to make sure nothing was too explicit for young readers.
Frank's musings about vaginas are illustrated with a black and white swirl, inspired by painter Georgia O'Keefe's famously vaginal flowers, he said. When Frank ponders female nudes, Polonsky draws her walking through a garden surrounded by Greek sculptures.
"I took inspiration from Anne's own world. She was really into Greek art and sculptures," he said. "I decided to show the nudes through classical marble sculptures, which I believed six years ago would be a mainstream thing that wouldn't be too controversial."
The illustrations from the book.
Georgia O'Keefe's famously vaginal flowers
This book was out for six years before it became a "problem". Real "someone think of the poor children" bullshit moral panic that is thinly disguising its fascism.
“This book adapted explicitly from writings at the time doesn’t depict the Holocaust accurately” fucking batshit
Moms for Liberty are just mad that the book doesn't portray the nazis as the good guys like their newsletter does.
They never have a problem with Mein Kampf.
America’s pearl clutching around all sexual topics is so insane to me. 13 year olds are gonna think about their genitals and who they’re attracted to, so why is it that we have to treat the idea of sexuality as taboo? God forbid adolescents don’t feel shame for completely normal feelings
I guess the long lasting cultural effects of antiquated abrahamic religion is the cause. But horrific violence? Meh no prob. Make war not love, I guess.
It's mass sexual abuse for mind control.
It's a way to keep the Christian nationalists to keep voting. True of all the culture crap keep Christ in Christmas and stuff like that. If they can't keep the religious bigots voting then it will really go badly for the trumpy grumpies.
The Dutch "Avondshow met Arjen Lubach" did a funny piece on this. A lot of people are laughing at the US, or it ultra-conservative parts at least, but it's a bit sad that's it's so bad, to be honest.
That is indeed equal parts really funny and then really sad knowing this is part of being American.
Heaven forbid we see the thoughts of a normal kid growing up in a war that she wouldn't see the end of.
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.
unless they want to take care of education themself.
Oh, they do. That's part of the problem.
Eh, then it will eventually become a borderline daycare center for anyone who can't pay for the serious education/indoctrination.
If I wasn't an American I would find the back and forth idiocy of Texas and Florida hilarious. I mean, one does some crazy stupid shit and they other says hold my beer.
I can’t imagine why anyone would want to teach in a red state (or county, etc.) The pay is shit, you always have to think twice before even alluding to an unpopular truth, and every day you risk becoming a headline.
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.
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.
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.
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!
