Feature Story
Picking Up Pens, Not Guns
Erin Gruwell’s Freedom Writers
by Derek Shaw
Erin Gruwell was a fresh-faced 24 year-old just out of graduate school, an idealistic and somewhat naïve Orange County native. She wanted to teach in Long Beach, a community she describes as a “multicultural collision of different races and economics.” What she didn’t count on was the 1992 Los Angeles Riots in the wake of the Rodney King beating. The ensuing violence, animosity and racial tension generated a regional trail of blood that trickled down to Long Beach where a record 126 murders occurred in 1993.
It’s hard to imagine more formidable circumstances, but Gruwell had no intention of backing down. Long Beach was her first choice, and she wasn’t going anywhere. The start of the school year, however, found Gruwell scrambling to hold the attention, let alone gain the respect, of her unruly class at Woodrow Wilson High.
“The school itself was a very segregated environment, inside and outside of the classroom,” Gruwell recalls. “But I wanted to work with so called “at-risk” students because those are the kids who fall through the cracks and need the most help.”
Many talented teachers take jobs at prominent schools in the suburbs, meanwhile, urban institutions fend for themselves with fewer resources and less qualified faculty. The public education system is suffering; especially inner city schools which greatly need better staff and funding.
Gruwell’s pupils had long been written off by the time they walked into Room 203 for their first day of high school. Low test scores, stints in juvenile hall, alienation and hostility caused them to be mislabeled by the system as “unteachable,” “below average,” and “delinquents.” Many of Gruwell’s students were from broken families, whose parents were incarcerated, on the streets, or dead.
The challenge was to find a way to relate and make the curriculum pertinent to their troubled lives. Despite the fact that her students were barely in their teens, they had already experienced more heartbreak, loss and tragedy than most people will in a lifetime.
They needed more than a teacher. They needed a mentor, and most importantly they needed a friend.
From the first day of school, students placed bets on how long their new teacher would last at Woodrow Wilson. The diverse collection of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics had one thing in common from the get go: they all hated each other, and they didn’t trust their preppy and perky teacher. A pivotal incident occurred when classmates chastised a gang member who had recently transferred from a rival school. After discovering a racial caricature being passed around the room, Gruwell had a flash of clarity she deems a “divine moment.” Intolerance leads to hatred, and she immediately put a stop to the bigotry.
The first parallel that came to her mind was the Nazis' anti-Semitic propaganda. To her surprise, Gruwell was received by rows of blank faces when she spoke of this to the class. Not only did they not understand the association, but they hadn’t even heard of the Holocaust. When she asked how many had been shot at; however, they all raised their hands.
Gruwell knew it was her duty to enlighten and empower the students. She had to be flexible in order to engage a class without incentive or motivation. She quickly realized that it’s not about teaching for a test or lecturing but rather, listening and collaborating. Gruwell’s philosophy is that “learning doesn’t stop after graduation…it’s a lifelong pursuit.”
Classic literature and music united the divided classroom, allowing students to find similarities among historical figures, themselves and each other. Teaching others that there is value in writing what needs to be written was the underlying purpose of composing daily journal entries. She challenged students to anonymously divulge their deepest sorrows and darkest secrets—murders, suicides, gangs, love, weight issues, immigration, dyslexia, divorces, drug abuse and more.
The kids of Room 203 dubbed themselves the Freedom Writers in homage to Civil War activists the Freedom Riders. Soon the classroom became a sanctuary, indeed a family. While at Woodrow Wilson, Gruwell invited some highly influential speakers to her classroom—Miep Gies, whose attic sheltered Anne Frank’s family during the Nazi invasion, and Zlata Filipovic, whose basement memoirs recorded the horrors of war in Sarajevo. The gracious guests illustrated the injustice of intolerance by sharing analogous tales of teens rising above a culture of violence.
“We met some of the most incredible activists during this process…from Civil Rights leaders to Holocaust survivors,” Gruwell recollects. “The commonality that all of them shared was a humility and a graciousness in knowing that they’re fighting for something bigger than themselves.”
The visitors inspired the students to chronicle their own lives, if only for the sake of cathartic venting. Little did they know that a remedial English assignment would become a New York Times best selling book. The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them was published in 1999 to the amazement of its adoring audience.
During the summer before their senior year, the Freedom Writers held an “Echoes of the Soul” fund-raising concert to finance a class trip to Washington, D.C., where they toured the Holocaust Museum and presented their diary to Secretary of Education, Richard Riley. The experience also allowed them to emulate their heroes, the Freedom Riders, by holding a peace march and prayer vigil for victims of intolerance at the Washington Monument. Soon thereafter, they won the Spirit of Anne Frank Award.
The Freedom Writers Foundation has been instrumental in contributing to a decrease in drop-out rates for over a decade, challenging students to confront their collective past, present and future. The non-profit’s purpose is to encourage teens to aspire to higher education and to promote an educational philosophy that values diversity and cultivates vital community members. They’ve shown young people who never considered college that it’s not only possible, but it is in fact, practical. Instilling a sense of trust and optimism, thousands of students have been transformed through the vehicle of self-expression and tolerance.
Every year, the Freedom Writers Foundation gives away scholarships to students who are the first in their families to graduate high school and attend college. They also provide financial and academic support to students for whom English is a second language, those with minor learning disabilities and others who are at risk of dropping out of high school.
Additionally, the foundation donates books, as well as granting 150 teacher scholarships, training them to employ the Freedom Writers’ method. There are pilot programs in place across the nation, Canada and beyond. The Freedom Writers Institute is a 5-day seminar led by Gruwell with support from the original Freedom Writers in Long Beach. The program is currently open to Language Arts teachers, grades 6-12. A collaborative book called Freedom Writers—A Teacher’s Diary will soon be published as a guide to educational reform and the power of integration. “I really want to draw attention to the educational apartheid…public schools are not equal, but good teaching can equalize an unfair playing field,” Gruwell believes. “I want to stimulate dialogue so that people are more concerned with public education and deal with these difficult issues, forthright.”
Gruwell graduated with the Freedom Writers in 1998, not only from high school, but she also served as their professor at Long Beach City College and Long Beach State. Through her steadfast guidance and support, many of the students shattered stereotypes and pursued bachelor’s degrees, graduate programs, Ph.D.’s, and some even received teaching credentials. Gruwell took her students on an international field trip to Sarajevo, Amsterdam and to Auschwitz, the notorious German Nazi concentration camp in Poland.
Gruwell’s reassuring father always reminded her, “You’ve been blessed with a burden.” That now famous line was later used in the Hollywood recreation of the Freedom Writers’ journey. Following the airing of a primetime ABC Special, the producers of Erin Brockovich sought to bring the inspirational story to the silver screen.
Though Gruwell hesitated at first, the filmmakers showed an overwhelming desire to partner on the venture and preserve its veracity. They consulted with Gruwell about everything from the screenplay to casting, setting the entire film in Long Beach and even hiring some of the original Freedom Writers as extras. Paramount Pictures released the film in 2007 starring Hilary Swank in the role of Erin Gruwell. The Freedom Writers movie received rave reviews and finally gave the voiceless and misunderstood an opportunity to speak out.
“I was initially apprehensive because I didn’t want to trivialize these very personal stories—it’s hard to avoid making a cheesy, after-school special when dealing with issues of race and equality,” Gruwell admits. “But the filmmakers were very concerned with credibility, and they did it justice.”
Gruwell wants to transform classrooms into havens that feel safe and accepting to the students, hoping to inspire urban youth to succeed academically, change their communities and share their own stories. Her underdog students have shown that it’s about the journey as much as the destination and the importance of learning history is to avoid repeating past mistakes.
The goal of this humanitarian movement is to pay it forward, and Gruwell remains thankful for the exposure that helped spread the message around the world. The scope of Freedom Writers’ outreach has not only surpassed Gruwell’s expectations but also her wildest dreams. She has given over a thousand presentations and workshops to teachers, schools, juvenile halls, corporations, government institutions and community groups nationwide.
“We have to design curriculums that are more relevant to teenagers, and transform school into a student-centered environment,” Gruwell asserts. “If anything, I hope that kids find their voice, pick up a pen and tell their own story so they don’t feel alone.”
From donations to sponsorships, your support helps teachers inspire students to have a vested interest in their classroom and community. Free your mind at www.freedomwritersfoundation.org Derek Shaw is a musician, skateboarder and writer. He loves his black lab Spot and Spot loves him. Check him and his band out at myspace.com/dovesanddesperados