As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”
With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.
With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.
The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers. (taken from goodreads.com)
When I was in camp one summer they showed us The Freedom Writers movie, and It was one of my favorite movies I had seen. When I started teaching I wanted to read more books about different people’s experiences as a teacher and this was the first book I picked up.
This book was AMAZING. It made me cry. I wanted to hug everyone in this story.
These young men and women are fierce and strong, they have seen the worst of the worst and their teacher is one of the first people who believes in them. I was so nervous that this was going to be a “white teacher saves children book” but the author acknowledged right away her privilege and made it very clear that the only person who could save these teens were themselves. She believed in them in a way they hadn’t experienced before and she pushed them to be the best that they could be.
As an educator, I found this book to be so important. Your students will most likely not disclose to you what is going on at home for them. But we as educators need to be able to create a space where they can let out their emotions and understand that they are not alone.
The book takes place during the Rodney King riots in L.A., when the racial tensions were high and high schoolers had more important things on their minds than what was going on in the classroom.
The students in this book talk about heavy topics and I would like to put a trigger warning for abuse, rape, drugs, alcohol, abortion (this all I can remember right now but I know there is more and I will add it.) This isn’t an easy book to digest, I had to put it down because sometimes it was too much for me to read in one sitting. I’m lucky I could step away from these situations, the students in these books couldn’t walk away from their situations so easily.
This book taught me that pushing and never giving up on a student is one of the most important things I can do as an educator.
I recently watched the documentary with the actual freedom writers and getting to hear them talk about where they are now, and being able to see how they are paving the way for others like them was amazing.
Students in school will act out, and sometimes for students school is the only safe place. As educators, we need to understand that sometimes all our students need from us is love and not to judge them. The material we teach matters, but so does giving them a safe haven away from the craziness that might be going on at home.
This book is one of my favorite books on education and I highly recommend this to everyone!
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