...and memorize certain dates, events and people that have tremendous significance to a country, nation or even community. If you view it this way, you are missing the whole point of history. There is more to the objectivity of history. The very essence of history is that it leaves a trace of emotion by these so called significant events in one’s and/or other people’s lives – much like what Erin did in the movie, Freedom Writers. Erin is one of the rare kind of teachers that teach you more than what the curriculum offers. More than just a teacher-student relationship, she has offered and developed friendship, trust and hope for the students of Room 203 and more importantly, bridged the gap among her students that has been constraining their way of interacting with each another. Erin’s first encounter with her class did not seem to be what she expected at all. There were no signs of respect for anyone in the room as the students formed cliques, isolated themselves from those who belonged to another race or gang and continued chitchatting despite the presence of their teacher. Nevertheless, Erin put up with this kind of attitude from her students and strived to teach them the best way she could – through innovation. She planned field trips, inspiring talks by Holocaust survivors, Anne Frank’s guardian, She realized that to be able to teach her students, she must first understand who they are and what they are going through to be able to get her point across. She started it with the...
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...Psychoanalysis of characters When people think of psychoanalysis, usually one name comes to mind. This would be Sigmund Freud. Freud, along with Carl G. Jung and Alfred Adler, has impacted the history of psychoanalysis. Further, he has influenced the lives of the men and women during the early 1900s. In critical theory today: a user friendly guide, Tyson explains the critical theories of psychoanalysis and Marxism. It’s all about the studies of human behaviors for example, human mind, especially inner experiences, thoughts, feelings, emotions, fantasies, and dreams. I have chosen one book and a movie. In a book, it talks about James, who is a main character of the story. He was really confused about his identity because he was a black and his mother was a white. In a movies, they showed the racism and differences create between students in their childhood. Both of these based on true stories. I would compare these character with Marxism and Freud’s theory. A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother is the autobiography of James McBride. It is also a tribute to his mother. It starts of the narrator James’s mother Ruth, who describes her early life with her family. She was born in Polish Orthodox Jewish family that was immigrant to United States. She had a repressed childhood in Virginia. She was sexually abused as a child from her father. In critical theory today: a user friendly guide, Tyson defines Fear of abandonment—“the unshakable belief that our friends and loved ones...
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...white teacher trying to make a difference in a room crammed with black, Latino and Asian high school freshmen. It is defiantly a challenge, especially for a first time teacher. Hillary Swank is the main actress and she plays Erin Gruwell, a 23-year-old teacher in 1994 assigned to teach freshman and softmore English at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif. By the time Erin steps into her classroom, two years after the riots for integration, the school had changed greatly. This film portrays teachers in two ways, one way is the set in their way teacher and the other is willing to do whatever they can to make students succeed. In the beginning of the movie Mrs. Gruwell said “God by the time you’re defending a kid in a court room the battle is already lost, I think the real fighting should happen here in the class rooms.” In her statement she is foreshadowing two things, one is the real fights that happen in her class, and the other is what she does to help these students succeed. She later said “I know I have a lot to learn as a teacher but I’m a really good student….and I really want to be here!” This is a great statement by her and proves she could be an excellent teacher. Threw out the movie she did learn a lot, and applied what she learned. Mrs. Gruwell had a rough start. The kids wouldn’t respect her, they were fighting in the room, and there were gang problems brought into her class. At one point in the beginning of the movie she was talking to her husband and said “It’s...
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...English at Woodrow Wilson High School and Erin Gruwell took on that challenge. As it turned out, it was nothing like what she imagined it to be. There was racial segregation in the classroom and all her students had problems outside and inside of school. That however, did not stop her from being passionate about her job. She used new techniques to help her students become interested in the class while learning and made many sacrifices for those kids which no other teacher was willing to do. Although everyone thought the kids in room 203 were the “unteachables”, Mrs. Gruwell used her own ways to educate them and made a huge impact to those students’ lives including her three of her most difficult students: Eva, Jamal, and Marcus. When the bell rang for class, Mrs. Gruwell’s expectations went down the drain as most of her students came in her class late and the ones that showed up displayed disrespect and no interest for school. Even though her students were not what she expected them to be, she found a way to interest them into learning using her own unique ways. She entertained them in many ways such as music, and using music lyrics to teach instead of poetry that bored the whole class. She made the class time fun by having many activities and gave each of the students their own journals to write in and share about their everyday lives. Since the school was not willing to give students books to read because of the limited budgets, Mrs. Gruwell did something no other teacher was...
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...A large problem facing Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers (2007) was although an integrated school system was considered a good thing at this point in history, the integraton created some issues. Society was not looking at the individuals in each school and examining how this sudden integration of different cultures would affect those involved. By suddenly uprooting so many students and drastically changing their environment, many teens were effectd in an adverse manner and had no desire to participate in school or continue their education. Erin Gruwell became the sole pathfinder practitioner for these troubled teens (Brown, 2011, p. 91). She challenged authority within the school system and fought to create a better teaching environment. Another problem facing these students was the school administrations “white” view of teaching. The other teachers did not take the time or care enough to make the curriculum something the students could relate to. These inner city kids were surrounded by violence, racism, abuse and no home life or positive influences in their lives. Each student felt alone and that no one understood their life or story, they took some refuge and made friends with in their own cultures and gangs that were separated by race. The school administrators were more concerned with getting students through the school system then truly educating them or inspiring them to improve their lives. Since there was not trust between the students and teachers there was...
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...Freedom Writers When she realizes that her students are living in their own personal wars, she takes the Diary of Anne Frank, Romeo and Juliet (another gangster story) to read in class. She notices that her school is segregated by race and color. So, she divides her class with a colored tape taped to the middle of the floor, and she says, “ were going to play a game, o.k.?” This activity helps them realize that they are all fighting the same battles, and are living their lives very much in common. “You’re going to have fun I promise.” Look you can work on those workbooks til the bell rings or you can play a game.” This is called the line game, I’m going to ask you a question, if that question applies to you, you step on to the line then step back away for the next question. Easy right? First q How many of you have the new Snoop Dog album? Everyone steps up to the line. How many of you have seen Boys in the Hood? Again everyone steps up to the line. How many of you live in the projects? Most of them go up to the line. How many of you know someone, a friend or relative, who was or is in juvenile hall or jail? Everyone steps up to the line. How many of you have been in juvenile hall or jail for any length of time? How many of you know where to get drugs right now? How many of you know someone in a gang? All of them step up to the line. How many of you are gang members? Noone goes up to the line, but their lying. Stand on the line if you’ve lost a friend to gang...
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...going to be your average story about a teacher and her students, but instead it was much more than what was anticipated. It was hard not to be moved by the stories of each student and the difference this teacher was able to make in their lives. This story of a young, fairly inexperienced teacher named Erin Gruwell shows just what one person can accomplish when one cares as much as Erin did. She had to deal with much adversity while attempting to teach at-risk students who were dealing with their own every day battles. Erin gives her students a chance to share their own story by giving them each a notebook to write in about their life. The story of each student is brought to life through what they share on the pages of their own notebook. And this is how the title of the story, Freedom Writers was incorporated. Erin also learns, through a joke made on another student in the class, that they have never heard or know anything about the Holocaust. Erin is completely surprised and saddened to learn of their ignorance about such a horrific time in our world. After learning that her students were unaware of the atrocities of the Holocaust, Erin makes it her mission to make certain that her students learn what happened during World War II. After reading The Story of Anne Frank and visiting a Holocaust museum, the students realize that like them, others have suffered greatly. It was not easy to watch this movie at times as pictures and stories from...
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...of separation and alienation from ‘the group.’ While some who suffer such alienation get lost in a dark world of low self-esteem, anti-social behaviour and intergroup conflict - others choose a path of reconciliation. They choose to see the positive possibilities of an us-oriented life and refuse to play the them-dominated role of the victim. Much modern literature explores variations of this theme in different ways. I have chosen four works that illustrate the phenomenon: Freedom Writers - a movie directed by Richard LaGravenese based on teacher Erin Gruwell’s book The Freedom Writer’s Diary; The Sneetches - a classic children’s book by Dr Seuss; The Power of One - a movie directed by John Avildsen based on Bryce Courtenay’s popular novel of the same name; and The Wave - a young adult novel written by Todd Strasser who is also known by his pen name - Morton Rhue. At the beginning of the film Freedom Writers, Ms Gruwell is attempting to teach her first English class, Room 203, which is full of gang and racial tension. She knows that they need to learn tolerance so that they can reclaim their shattered lives and gain a voice of their own. She tries many different teaching approaches to connect with and engage her class. This shows that she was trying to establish equality in the classroom and make enemies friends in order to help them see each other as people, not as problems or enemies. This is illustrated when she introduces the Line Game, a tool used to highlight the...
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...Freedom Writers Self-concept is the entirety of one's beliefs and attitudes towards their personal existence. Many people, depending on life experience, feel they have superiority or are at a disadvantage because of the group they fall into. This is seen in the movie Freedom Writers, each and every student has their own perspective on their own self-concept. These students end up finding similarities between each other because they have some sort of connection but only find it once they learn and open up about their struggles. There are many concepts of the self that can be found throughout the entire film. Empathy is one of the major concepts of The Freedom Writers. Empathy is the ability to put yourself into another person’s experience and to completely understand the other’s thoughts, feelings and way of being. (P.78) An example of empathy is when Mrs. G reads the journals and can really put herself into their shoes and really understand their individual experiences. If Mrs. G didn’t have a strong sense of empathy for the students, she never would have been able to help them conquer their personal demons. Mrs. G used a strategy called identity management to connect with the students. Identity management is when communicators use certain strategies to influence the way others view them. (P.81) An example of this is when Mrs. G plays Tupac in an effort to relate to the kids in the class. She hopes to have them see that they may have something in common...
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...In the book, The Freedom Writers Diary, some things were not added into the movie. They changed the perspective, so instead of the students telling the story and the teacher secondary, like in the book, the teacher (Ms. Gruwell) tells the story, and the students are secondary. Also, the entries are worse and more horrifying than in the movie, like abuse, drugs, peer pressure, illness, and violence. I think that these changes, in the book version to the movie version, were to have a 3rd person point of view story of the kids, and not a 1st person point of view like in the book. When this story is in 3rd person point of view, we learn the struggle for Ms. Gruwell and the hardships on the students. In the movie, the screenplay writers added in a side story about Erin Gruwell and her husband. I believe that they did this because while the students are out on the streets with their gangs or friends getting in trouble or helping themselves getting better, we want to see how Ms. Gruwell is reacting to the students and what her family thinks of them. It shows what she thinks, wants, plans, and does to help the students and how passionate and caring she is aslo. After seeing the movie, some characters were like how I pictured them from the book, and others were way off. Eva was sort of how I pictured her, but not all of her. Her attitude, her hair, and what she wore is what I pictured of her, but she doesn’t seem like a “gangster”. I also pictured Marcus to look poorer...
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...teacher/practitioner spent more time with the class, she learned a little each day of what to expect from the class and through trial and error was finding a way to make them a team. The teacher had to use different techniques to find out which technique was going to work the best with the class to make them a team. Once she got the class to start to trust her then she could start using other techniques to get them closer together. She found that she had to get creative in order for them to listen to her and also for them to get involved with the rest of the class. As an outsider coming in she not only got resistance from the class that she was trying to get to work together but she also met resistance from other teachers and faculty members as well. Erin Gruwell, was faced with all kinds of issues. She had to look at the whole situation from an outsider’s position. She had to diagnose all the problems of the class and the faculty to find out how to solve the problems. She had to listen to the kids and observe how they acted in order to figure out a way to teach them in such a way that they would learn. And not only did she have to find a way for them to learn she had to change the way that she taught so that they learned in a way best suited for their life. She was met by all kinds of challenges because each time she...
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...The Freedom Writers Diary is a book that I truly enjoyed. It is a book broken down in diary form viewing the survival of a first year teacher and her students. This book shines light on real issues that these students as well as their teacher went through. These issues range from racism, death, and gang related violence. Although the only person that is named throughout the entire book is Ms. Gruwell, one can still identify and keep track of the situations that occur. Diary number two, by far was the most prevalent in my opinion. It gave the viewpoint of a white male student in a class where he was the minority. “What the hell am I doing in here? I’m the only white person in this English class! …Is this really where I’m supposed to be?” (P.8) This student made it clear that he felt really uncomfortable in a class full of “rejects”. Since most of the “rejects” were not white, he felt he shouldn’t have been in that class. The “rejects”, as he called them, were students that were labeled as problem students and or students with learning disabilities. Although this student had a learning disability, he felt that because of his race, he should have been placed in a high level class. Like many others he 2 authors .... These two essays are very similar because their subject .... to that improvident avarice..." These are writers who have .... work soon after he got his freedom and was .... (642 3 ) Kate...
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...For anyone who doubts the power of storytelling to change the world, teacher Erin Gruwell’s personal story of transforming students who were labeled stupid and apathetic into confident, motivated high school graduates will erase that doubt for good. Gruwell Gruwell will be the Olin Fellows speaker for the Assembly Series at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 3, in Anheuser-Busch Hall Moot Courtroom, Room 310. Her talk, “Becoming a Catalyst for Change,” is free and open to the public. When Gruwell walked into class on her first day as an English teacher, she was met by a room full of angry, frustrated teenagers who were determined to hate everything about her, the school, even themselves. She didn’t know how to break through the invisible barrier that kept her students from learning. What she did know is that everyone in the school had written off these teens. After learning about the hardships in these teens’ lives — an environment full of racism, rejection and the tragedy of seeing no hope for the future — she understood why they saw no point in reading and writing. Gruwell also understood their need for self-expression, so her students began writing anonymous journal entries about their lives. After seeing a film about the Freedom Riders, a group of teenagers who showed remarkable bravery during the Civil Rights Movement, the class decided to call themselves the Freedom Writers. In 1999, their entries became a best-selling book called The Freedom Writers Diary: How a...
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...to keep raging flames in their hearts. Until one tough and undeniably smart professor came on their way to take action – Ms. Gruwell. As Ms. Gruwell came into the movie, I just thought that there will really be one person who will unexpectedly cross one’s life and lead you towards impunity. Same with the world or certain country where there is rampant chaos and a peacemaker leads to fight for the right. At first, Ms. Gruwell had dismay that she wasn’t able to understand everything. And because she thinks and considers the factors she sees in her current endeavor, she came up with a very unique plan that a usual professor wouldn’t think about. – FREEDOM WRITING. I guess, the maker of the movie wanted to disseminate how the therapy of writing one’s feelings comes into such a relief to those whose minds are insane and broken. This is a very good twist in the movie, where in cultural liberalism takes place. Series of difficulties are shown in the movie, and how brave Ms. Gruwell and the students faced it together. Regardless of race, nationality and status, they all worked it out and despite Ms. Gruwell’s dispute in school, everything worked out the way it is supposed to be. I felt bad because I know that the movie really happens in reality, and I have this hope in my heart that there will be more people who will understand and become more like Ms. Gruwell....
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