Freedom Writers Change the World
This isn't about my hopes and dreams, but it is about inspiration.
I happen to catch recently the movie Freedom Writers a movie starring Hillary Swank that hit theaters in January 2007. Based on a true story and book The Freedom Writers Diary the movie is about an eager 23-year old teacher, Erwin Gruwell, whose first job is an urban high school in Long Beach, Calif. There she encounters a group of students who have been long considered not teachable. These students' experiences are from life, not the classroom. Most of the students lives depicted in the film are hardcore, ones that dealt with drugs, violent crimes, serving time and death. As she desperately tries to teach the students in her class, she comes up with an innovative way to reach them by giving them a journal to write down basically their lives in. The students allow Ms. Gruwell to read the journals, therefore, giving her an opening into their lives of suffering. Gruwell then uses the WWII Holocaust in which compares and contrasts the students' lives with those of the Jewish that were persecuted in Nazi death camps. The students are assigned the book The Diary of Anne Frank, and after they read it, their lives begin to change for the better forever. And for the most part Gruwell's life also changes for the better. The story is one of overcoming the odds and affecting change. The lessons learned by studying the Holocaust enable the students to always strive to do the right thing no matter what. The story is inspiring for everyone and especially to those of us who may have forgotten what it means to do the right thing in order to change the world.
The story doesn't end with the movie or with the graduation of Gruwell's first class, in fact, she has set up a foundation, The Freedom Writers Foundation, in order to train teachers to use innovative ways to reach students.
I'll end by saying that change almost always precipitates some form of controversy, and in the movie Gruwell experiences her fair share of it. In the end, it is perseverance and determination to affect change that almost always wins out. This movie is inspirational and a must see.
Freedom Writers Foundation Web site.
I happen to catch recently the movie Freedom Writers a movie starring Hillary Swank that hit theaters in January 2007. Based on a true story and book The Freedom Writers Diary the movie is about an eager 23-year old teacher, Erwin Gruwell, whose first job is an urban high school in Long Beach, Calif. There she encounters a group of students who have been long considered not teachable. These students' experiences are from life, not the classroom. Most of the students lives depicted in the film are hardcore, ones that dealt with drugs, violent crimes, serving time and death. As she desperately tries to teach the students in her class, she comes up with an innovative way to reach them by giving them a journal to write down basically their lives in. The students allow Ms. Gruwell to read the journals, therefore, giving her an opening into their lives of suffering. Gruwell then uses the WWII Holocaust in which compares and contrasts the students' lives with those of the Jewish that were persecuted in Nazi death camps. The students are assigned the book The Diary of Anne Frank, and after they read it, their lives begin to change for the better forever. And for the most part Gruwell's life also changes for the better. The story is one of overcoming the odds and affecting change. The lessons learned by studying the Holocaust enable the students to always strive to do the right thing no matter what. The story is inspiring for everyone and especially to those of us who may have forgotten what it means to do the right thing in order to change the world.
The story doesn't end with the movie or with the graduation of Gruwell's first class, in fact, she has set up a foundation, The Freedom Writers Foundation, in order to train teachers to use innovative ways to reach students.
I'll end by saying that change almost always precipitates some form of controversy, and in the movie Gruwell experiences her fair share of it. In the end, it is perseverance and determination to affect change that almost always wins out. This movie is inspirational and a must see.
Freedom Writers Foundation Web site.
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