The Lesson Plan

I recommended this film to friends who I haven’t caught up with in a while. (A trailer can be found at the bottom of this entry.) I said that it would give them a good idea of how my life has been really like in the past three years. Though I am not deluding myself into thinking that I’ve reached the success Erin Gruwell has, I can relate to her story too well.

In this review of the Freedom Writers Diary, I refer to both the book and the movie it inspired. This is not really a case where the movie is inferior to the book. The two media tell different sides of the same story with the book focusing more on her students, and the movie telling more of Erin Gruwell’s — or Ms. G, as her students call her — trials and triumphs as a teacher.

I won’t be giving a technical review, but rather a personal account of what the Freedom Writers Diary means to me. I think, given the material, this is just too appropriate.

The Freedom Writers Diary is a project Ms. G (played by Hilary Swank, see picture with the real life Erin) began in her classes during their sophomore year. For a while, they kept diaries and logged events and learnings, and at the end of the year they compiled the best entries into a manuscript which, through some luck and good grace, they got published. Ms. G fought to keep her classes beyond her previous assignment (1st and 2nd year high school), and stayed with her class all the way until senior year.

Erin Gruwell fought an uphill battle from the very beginning. She was initially assigned “unteachable, at risk kids” who no other teacher wanted to take. And her students lacked the confidence, the desire and the drive to be better students. Borrowing a quote from Coach Carter, they were in a system designed to make them fail. Above all, they were divided.

The early to mid 90’s was a tumultuous time in Los Angeles with everyone divided by race, religion and the color of their skin. In school, just as in society at large, students were identified as black, Latino, Asian, and the white — where most of the honor students were — were the outcasts.

Erin Gruwell’s story as a teacher did not begin when she entered the school for the first time, all dressed up with pearls and sparkling with youthful idealism. Her true story began in an incident where she caught a drawing made by a Latino student mocking his black classmate. She then took a moment and said, “This is the type of propaganda that the Nazis used during the Holocaust.”

Then a student answered, “What is the Holocaust?” And from there, the rest was history.

Ms. G threw out her lesson plan and put tolerance at the center of her curriculum. They began to read books such as “Night” by Elie Wiesel and the autobiographical, “The Diary of Anne Frank”. She created a classroom where students would respect and love one another, and thus began a transformation that would touch the nation one classroom at a time.

Her story is one of those ideals teachers such as I aspire to. As I am currently at a crossroads in my life, I caught this movie and book at just the right time. It is a sobering look at how much more I have left to accomplish as a teacher and thus, I begin this new school year with a renewed sense of optimism and hope more similar to when I first began years ago.

The movie then follows her growth as a teacher, within and beyond the classroom. Her fellow teachers and the school administration were unsupportive and did not believe in her, but this did not stifle her creativity and determination. Her father supported her entirely but wanted her to entertain other career options, and she got to convince him otherwise. And her husband, despite loving her so deeply, wanted other things for them. What Erin experienced with her colleagues, her parents, her peers and her loved ones are all too familiar to me as well. Watching the film, I could claim that her story is mine too.

This film will mean different things to different people. But for a teacher such as I, it is an inspirational piece perfect for viewing at a time just like this. A new school year is about to begin and we teachers must never forget of the unique opportunity in our hands to make a difference in the lives of other people. Personally, this film has inspired me so much that I now rethink how I teach my subject. Erin Gruwell has brought me back to a mantra I used to hold on to tightly back when I began: My job is to help my students succeed.

So, hats off to Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writers! You guys are an inspiration more than you can imagine. Your story is one that everyone must hear.

View the trailer of Freedom Writers Diary