The Courage to Be a Teacher - Erin Gruwell’s Message in Freedom Writers

"You have made it this far. You’ve done it, I haven’t done anything. If you’ve succeeded in your goals, you owe it to yourselves. So, you can make it even without me"

A quote from Goosebumps, which summarizes an educational work of art, based on the true story of teacher Erin Gruwell. A class in turmoil from anger, victims of abuse and injustice, with no hope. An adolescent storm pervaded by difficult life experiences, full of gangs, violence, and racial prejudice.

But nothing is impossible for a teacher on her first day of class, more determined than ever to make a difference in the extreme fragility of the class she was assigned.

And here lies the turning point, where the school becomes a space for suffering, distress, and the needs of the students. This film, in my humble opinion, clearly shows the challenges that come with the teaching profession, where no title can hold up against the reality of the facts.

Miss Gruwell starts ambitiously, with a passionate and evocative look, full of hope, despite the pessimistic shield of the principal. However, she does not give up. She fights against the chaos, the bullying towards her, and the conflicts between students, driven by an anger yet to be released.

Miss Gruwell makes an attempt by asking who knew Tupac, one of the most famous rappers of the last century, who was well known in African American gangs. The result was that the students did not feel heard. They expressed their outrage to the teacher regarding the lack of tools to survive a life of injustice, oppression, and guns to their heads. And then, something unexpected happened.

One of the students became curious about a word mentioned by Gruwell during the lesson:

Holocaust.

The thread that led to this theme was a drawing, created as an offensive act by one of the students. In a situation like this, a teacher’s response would be at a crossroads, forced to choose between reprimanding and transforming the problem into an opportunity. She chose the latter, and it was an extremely wise choice.

“What is the Holocaust?” asked Ben Samuels, the only white student in the class, unaware of the racial tragedies. History once again legitimized her demystifying role, where individual events resonate in the conscience, even though written on seemingly neutral pages. At that point, the mission became clearer: to make the students perceive their similarities, what connected them. Gruwell’s ingenuity paved the way. One morning, she entered the class with a red ribbon, with which she divided the students into two groups, facing each other.

The instruction was simple: take a step forward if you identified with the proposed statements (e.g., “Take a step forward if you’ve lost a friend in a shooting”). Then, inside boxes on the desk, there were notebooks, one for each student, where they would write every day whatever they wanted. The second instruction, somewhat arbitrary, was to place their notebooks in a specific locker if they wanted the teacher to read them.

The result was shocking, considering the starting point.

The locker contained the notebooks of the entire class. The goal was now achieved. After this intervention, the students' trust grew, and as a result, the bond of respect with a figure once perceived with hostility was strengthened. The narrative revealed an incredible power, that of acting as a mediator with an unexplored past, buried under the weight of misunderstanding. Moreover, the film serves as an example for another reason: the extraordinary power of working with a shared purpose, in synergy with one another. This is evidenced by a fundraiser organized by the group to invite one of the protagonists of Anne Frank’s biography to recount the events from her perspective.

I find it wonderful how a figure like the teacher is often deprived of such a visceral and sensitive purpose, being reduced to mere entertainment, rote learning, and dictation. Freedom Writers, in my opinion, puts forward a well-deserved red carpet for a job that is often undervalued. The implicit message I gathered from the film is to go beyond appearances, an intention that involves overturning expectations, even of those at the highest levels. It is an act of courage that Miss Gruwell wisely applied by communicating (“sharing”) with the life experiences of silenced biographies.

Let's imagine a school that is attuned to the real needs of the new generation and those to come, ready to give voice to the present and the imminent future. Instead of starting a lesson with facts, one could opt for an active dialogue with the students (the class), discovering together interests, passions, expectations, and challenges. One creative activity example could be writing on post-its the elements that connect people from different cultures and histories.

Who would truly be willing to act like Erin Gruwell?