“The Then it reached the front corner desk

“The Then it reached the front corner desk

“The Freedom Writers” In the movie “The Freedom Writers” Mrs. Gruwell (Hillary Swank) plays a role of a dedicated teacher who did all she could to help her students. Mrs. Gruwell was faced with a big challenge when a group of freshmen students showed her nothing but disrespect which made it hard for her to communicate and understand them. While she taught she learned different strategies to get them to participate in class activities. The students in the class were highly racial and only talked to the students of the same race as them.

Mrs.Gruwell had such a great compassion towards teaching, she used many differnt techniques to try and show the students taht each one is equal and important. One method she had used to help them enjoy reading and writing was to give them each a journal. In these journals, the students were told to write down anything they wanted, anything on their mind.

She then said she would not read the journals unless they wanted her to. She kept the journals the students aloud her to read in a locked cabnit. To her suprise, all of the students left there journals for their stories to be heard.As she began to read these journals, she the began to realize that life for these kids was not easy. Each and everyone of them had their own stoy to tell. The stories went from, being kicked out of the house for joining into a gang violence, to being beaten up just because they were differnt.

Later on in the movie, there was a note being passed around druing class, the students all thought it was funny. Then it reached the front corner desk of a dark skinned boy. When he opened the note, inside was a drawing.

This drawing was of the boy, but with a large nose.He was very emberassed, and Mrs. Gruwell took the note and saw the horrible drawing. After this, she began to tell the students about the Holocaust. She began to tell them about the drawings of the Jews, and how people were killed just because of what they believed and what they looked like. The class then read The Diary of Anne Frank.

This is truly where, I believe, Mrs. Gruwell opened the students eyes. As the Movie goes on, you begin to see this classroom, that was once segregated into different gangs, become a family.They all talk, they all were friends, the chineese with the blacks, the mexicans with the whites, all together.

After seeing this film, I look to Mrs. Gruwell with respect. I would hope that one day I could become an influence on my students like her. She was a new teacher, going into this school not having a clue what was ahead of her. She proved other teachers and the principal wrong. I would love to have that respect from my students, and to make a change in someones life, just like she did.