‘Freedom Writers’ teacher connects with students
Teachers should teach to their students, not with them, said the woman who inspired the film “Freedom Writers,” Erin Gruwell. Teaching should be student-centered, she said.
While teaching at a California high school, Gruwell brought a class of segregated students together by teaching them about the Holocaust, and encouraging them to write about their own stories.
Gruwell spoke Wednesday at USU, and is lauded for her alternative teaching methods and the book she wrote, titled “The Freedom Writers Diaries,” which the film is based on. Gruwell said the idea for the book was an “homage” of Anne Frank.
The Emma Eccles Jones College of Education brought Gruwell to USU this year and she is already booked to come back and speak next year at Education Week.
After spending a portion of the school year teaching her students about the Holocaust, she realized the students had personal issues that connected with the events they were learning about, and these events needed to be addressed, Gruwell said.
“What I found out is that – for the majority of students – death was common,” she said. “And they had become numb to it. One student said they had been to more funerals than birthday parties. If I really wanted to make a difference, I knew we needed to address this scenario. Young kids shouldn’t be having to deal with that.”
A Mountain Crest High School class attended Gruwell’s speech, and students were excited to get her signature in their copies of her book, said Becky Checketts, ASUSU senator for the College of Education. Reading her book is part of the class curriculum, she said.
After the speech, USU students, faculty and staff, as well as K-12 students and community members, wrapped around the TSC International Lounges to meet Gruwell.
“It was just a cool experience that she mostly talked about her students lives,” Checketts said. “And the whole time you are shaking your head and can’t believe these things happen in America.”
The story that stuck out most to Checketts was one about a male student who saw his friend accidentally shoot himself in the forehead, she said. The student’s family didn’t have a lot of money, but gave him $25 to spend on school supplies, Gruwell said.
The boy’s friend talked him into not spending the money on school supplies, and the two bought a firearm together, she said. The friend shot himself while using the gun to show the male student a game he saw on TV.
“I grew up in suburbia and I wasn’t familiar with all of those elements of urban violence that were commonplace for my students,” Gruwell said. “It was the first time I had felt unsafe. I saw the drug dealers and the gangsters and the prostitutes … and I was sad that at the end of the day I got to go home to a safe area away from it. For my students, that was their home.”
Carrie Miller, a USU alumna who graduated from the College of Education, attended the speech and said Gruwell talked about a female student who joined a gang, following suit with her father and grandfather. Miller said the girl didn’t have a bright future until taking Gruwell’s class.
“(Gruwell) is the kind of teacher I want to be someday,” Miller said, “I’m just not sure how to do that. she gave a voice to the voiceless … she empowered her students.”
Checketts had the opportunity to attend a dinner event with Gruwell, and she said she was impressed that Gruwell walked around to meet everyone and get to know them, rather than wait for guests to approach her.
Gruwell started the Freedom Writers Foundation, Checketts said, which is a program that teachers use to connect with students, especially students who are segregated.
“We become an advocate for students and development and integration for teachers, as well as a voice for parents,” Gruwell said. “We want to believe that every single kid can make it. I realized early on that I couldn’t do it alone. We advocate that no teacher should be alone in fighting for their students. The Freedom Writers Foundation can be that for these teachers.”
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu,
– m.van911@aggiemail.usu.edu