Movie Review: The Freedom Writers

I found The Freedom Writers to be a very inspirational movie for someone who is thinking about being a teacher.  Watching this movie gave me hope and encouragement that teaching children can make a difference in a child’s life, even children who are at a disadvantage.

Erin was a new teacher, full of high hopes and dreams about how her first teaching experience should be. She was optimistic in her teaching and her students, and she wanted her teaching to impact their lives in positive ways.

In the beginning of the school year, many of her students were racially divided, foul-mouthed, gang involved, violent, and a very disrespectful group of teenagers. Many of Erin’s students were forced to come to school by their probation officers. The choice was go to school or go to juvenal detention. Some of her students were homeless and living on the streets. Many did not come at all.

Erin Gruwell took a group of teens who were racially divided, and found a way to reach them, and bring them together. The line game was one strategy that Erin came up with to break through the racial barriers that separated her students. I think the line game made each student realize that they were not that different from each other, and that they were all facing the same challenges in life. I also thought the line game was where Erin earned their respect. She did not condemn or comment; she watched and gave them her respects for a lost friend or loved one. This game also made them realize that they had all lost friends to gang violence.

Erin faced a lot of adversity from the school administration and from the teachers.  Her students had low grades and were labeled as non-teachable, and a waste of the schools time and money.  They would not give her books to teach her students because they would not get them back.

I loved the way Erin took matters into her own hands. She got a second and third job so she could buy the books herself. She came up with her own innovative teaching ideas to reach her students, through literature and journaling. She bought them literature books that she thought they would relate to in their own lives, and would interest them, so they would want to learn. Through journaling, she let each student tell his or her story, and made him or her realize that they did matter. Her teaching methods let them be their selves, and gave them hope for the future.

Erin's teaching strategies worked. Her students grades improved, and they actually came to school. They started to realize that she really cared about them and their education.  Erin went way beyond the call of duty for her students. She took them on field trips, to museums, and out to dinner.

Erin’s expectations for her students were very high.  She taught them that they could learn, they will learn, they will graduate from high school, and can even go onto college.  She was not excepting anything less.  I think that this had a tremendous effect on their learning.  They started to believe in themselves because she believed in them.

 Erin Gruwell never gave up on her students, and I am going to take that lesson forward with me.  Someday when I am facing my first classroom of special children, I hope to be that kind of teacher.