‘Freedom Writer’ teacher addresses educators at Cal U
They weren鈥檛 suppose to make it.
The 150 students in 23-year-old newly hired Erin Gruwell鈥檚 Long Beach, Calif., English class were deemed failures from the very beginning.
Maria had a police record and was on house arrest except for school. Darrius maintained a grade point average of less than a percent. Some were homeless. All 150 scored below the 25th percentile on standardized tests.
鈥淭hey were angry kids coming from the far reaches of their neighborhoods,鈥� she told the crowd of about 600 teachers and education officials recently during the Leader in Me Global Education Summit held at California University of Pennsylvania which drew attendees from 26 states and 14 countries.
She was told by administrators at the school that her purpose was to 鈥渂aby-sit鈥� the students, until they dropped out of the system. It was the day Gruwell鈥檚 journey to save these students would begin.
When a racist drawing circulating the classroom spawning a discussion about the Holocaust, Gruwell quickly learned that the students had no knowledge of the event. Having been turned down by the school to make the purchase, Gruwell found herself with credit card in hand and purchased 150 copies of 鈥淭he Diary of Anne Frank.鈥�
Resistance to the reading was met at first as Gruwell introduced the book to her class. But as the students found themselves within the pages of the novel, the words began to represent hope in their lives. The students then began to tell their own stories through diaries and Gruwell began to chronicle her time with them.
鈥淭he Freedom Writers Diary鈥� was published in 1997 and earned a spot on the New York Times best-seller list. In 2007, Paramount Pictures released Freedom Writers, starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank as Gruwell.
They weren鈥檛 suppose to make it, but Gruwell made sure they did. All 150 students graduated from Wilson High School and the proceeds of the book enabled them to go onto college.
After the 150 students had finished high school, Gruwell left her position at the school and founded the Freedom Writers Foundation which enables her to reach out to other teachers and help them bring her lessons into their classrooms.
鈥淚 had been brainwashed like so many teachers in our country. I was brainwashed to teach to a test,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 hope that every one of you can go back to your classrooms, back to your schools and cultivate the Marias and the Darriuses and those leaders.鈥�