8/8/2023 0 Comments Teacher in freedom writersGlenn Whipp of Long Beach Press-Telegram wrote: “Judging from the film, you’d think that no teacher had ever tried this. The effect is that the other teachers at Woodrow High came out as lazy and worse, as opponents of Erin’s work. Erin did a fantastic job, but she didn’t do it alone: she relied on other teachers, a fact that the film fails to address. “She really taught them skills for life.”Ĭritics also slated the film for its sordid depiction of other teachers at the school. Barbara Walters on The View offered a castigating assessment of Erin’s approach, stating her methods fell short of academic standards.įran Sawdei, one of the parents whose child learned under Erin, disagrees sharply with Barbara Walters’ opinion. “She gave those kids manners, she gave them etiquette, she gave them connections,” Fran told The Los Angeles Times. People also found fault with Gruwell’s teaching methods, claiming that she spent too much time teaching life skills and ignoring the basics. When it comes to complexities of race, people need to talk about the fact that this is an enormous city that has been compartmentalized.” When you take a subject matter of intolerance, we had to look at every single angle of a story to bring it to life. “People who are making comments don’t know the true story. People associated with Woodrow High lamented that the film portrayed the school as dangerous.Įrin argued that from 1993 to 1998, Woodrow High wasn’t the exemplary school that it was when the film debuted. However, a significant group protested the film’s depiction of Woodrow Wilson High School and some of its teaching staff. The movie faced criticism for its depiction of the school and other teachersįew contested that Freedom Writers was an inspiring film. It took writer and director Richard LaGravenese six years to craft a narrative from The Freedom Writers Diary’s entries. From that story, he created the inspiring film Freedom Writers. And you will become the authority of your authentic story.’ We were going to go to DC as the original Freedom Riders did in the ‘60s to change segregation.” “So my pitch to my students was, ‘Could you imagine someday that there’s going to be a kid who was homeless just lke you? There’s going to be a kid who lost her dad just like you. Excerpts from the journals feature in The Freedom Writers Diary. Erin talked to PBS SoCal about how she got her students to share their journal entries: They also learned of the destructive potential of racial stereotypes and the ruin racial wars had brought upon the world.Įrin encouraged her students to journal their experiences, bringing them closer together. Gruwell’s approach worked as the students learned of the power of personal storytelling. They listened to Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank from the Nazis. Gruwell’s pupils read The Diary of Anne Frank and Zlata’s Diary instead of Shakespeare and the classics. So, Gruwell modified her syllabus to educate her students on the history of racial feuds in the world. She compared the racist remark to Nazi propaganda and was surprised to learn that only one of her students knew of the Holocaust. Gruwell’s desire to effect change sparked after she found several students ridiculing their classmate’s race. I was basically this new teacher given the students that nobody else wanted.” It happened to the kids I ended up teaching because I had all the kids who were busted, kids who had learning disabilities and kids had trouble with the law. “What I found, because I was brand new and I didn’t live in the city, was that there was a lot of intrinsic separation and masked racism. Erin talked to PBS SoCal about her group of students: She taught a diverse group of students, many of whom came from supportive families and a few who’d endured sexual abuse, domestic violence, and homelessness. Erin Gruwell arrived at Woodrow Wilson High School in 1994 as a student-teacher.
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