Hello all,
is there a simple way to password directories in Debian? Perhaps a bit of software to down load? I only want to password a couple of directories rather than a whole drive or partition. Thanks.

No, you will have to use encryption tools, rar or whatever you prefer. You can as well mount those dirs into an encrypted partition. However, not that while that partition is mounted, root (or any other with enough privileges) will also be able to see it's contents.

I think that btrfs and/or zfs (two experimental file systems in linux) has online encryption on their TODO list, however I have no idea if it will be implemented exactly in the way that you want/need, and I have no idea if some work has been already done in that field.

if you are on a system with multiple users and you simply want to have one more barrier between your files and them viewing try the following in your home directory (or test directory).

chmod -R go-rwx * .*

Understand what you are doing before you do it. You are removing the read, write, and execute permissions for group owners and people that are not the user owner or in the group. you don't need to restrict the group if you are the only one in your group... Simply removing the read write and execute from your main home directory (e.g. /home/username) will be enough to keep most users away. Do not let this warning be enough for you before trying it. Read the man page.

If you are concerned about superusers/root from viewing your files, look into PGP encryption and other such technologies.

Additionally, simply changing the access permissions on your files will not protect from somebody rebooting your machine with a live cd or taking your hard drive away.

Permissions do not work on windows based file systems (e.g. ntfs, fat32, vfat, etc.) this includes a flashdrive that is probably formatted using fat.