Freedom Writers Diary - Erin Gruwell - Part 1

Freedom Writers Diary
Erin Gruwell

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 1

 January 1, 2017 

Book 1 - Freedom Writers Diary

 Part 1 - Foreword and Pages 1-46

Reading Time - 1 hour

I watched the Freedom Writers Diary as a movie a few months back and really enjoyed it. I loved how the students transformed as they wrote about their lives, and as they read books which had relevance to their own situations. It was an intriguing movie and that usually makes me want to read the book.

I got the book from the library last week and it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I thought it would be more of a narrative style, perhaps from the teacher's point of view. It actually is mostly the anonymized diary entries of the students, which is kind of cool. Each section starts with a diary entry from the teacher and what struck me was how she made tolerance the core of her curriculum.

Back when I took English, there was a set curriculum. We had to read 1984, Anne Frank, The Iliad, Pride and Prejudice and heaven knows what else. None of those books really had a connection to my life. They were just something to plod through. Erin, the teacher for the Freedom Writers, made a different choice. She chose to find books that would speak the struggles her students were experiencing - conflict, racial and ethnic prejudice, violence, etc. A brilliant decision.

Some of the students made reference to the fact that they were living in an undeclared war, that as members of gangs, they were "soldiers". In her interactions with the students, Erin begins to challenge that worldview. Why are they at war with the Latinos or the Asians? No one knows. It's just what they do. But through her questions, the students start to examine their own beliefs, and transformation starts to take place.

One of the students noted "No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way." Words of wisdom from a young person that politicians and other adults could take to heart.

Part of the theme emerging in the diary entries is how their beliefs shape their lives. The students are seen by the "system" to be unmanageable, the lower end of the academic spectrum. No one believes in them and so they don't believe in themselves. But, as one student noted, Erin "believed in me" and so the student "started believing in me". Beliefs play a powerful role in shaping our lives - be they external beliefs from others, or our own beliefs. As Gandhi said:

Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.

This book makes me wonder, what are my beliefs? How is what I read shaping my own life?