Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell is a person who wanted to prove the impossible. She proved that she could teach kids who are “unteachable”. She was able to inspire kids who wanted to be in gangs, and kids from bad homes to want to learn and read. She assigned them to read books that had to do with their lives, and each day she made them write in their journals (That she gave to them) about something, anything as long as they wrote. Erin was able to see all of her kids graduate from high school because she never gave up on them.
Erin Gruwell was born on August 15, 1969 in California. She graduated from Bonita High School, in La Verne, California, and the University of California, Irvine. She went on to California State University, Long Beach to earn her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials. From there, she went on to her first teaching job at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.
Erin Gruwell was planning on becoming a lawyer, but when she watched the Los Angeles riots on TV in the early 1990’s, that made her change her mind and life dramatically. She saw people starting fires robbing stores, damaging property, and beating up other people because they were angry. Erin believed that she could change how people were reacting to their frustration. She decided to go to work at Woodrow Wilson High School, where the kids were from many different backgrounds, and where she felt she would have a chance to make a difference.
At Woodrow Wilson High School, Erin was assigned to teach English to 9th graders. On her first day at Woodrow Wilson High School, Erin quickly learned that teaching these kids was going to be more challenging than she imagined. It was hard for her to teach her class because some of the kids were in gangs, they didn't want to learn, and/or they had a lot of problems at home. There were fights in class as well. The students didn’t like her because she was white (one student said that whites had no respect for blacks), and because she didn’t understand their situations at all. All of the other teachers said that she had no idea what she was doing. Erin Gruwell’s father thought that she was making a mistake teaching there because it was dangerous, and even her husband thought she was wasting too much time with kids who would never learn or respect her. On Parents’ Night, no one showed up to visit her classroom. This showed Erin that her students were right. Their parents didn’t respect or care about their education.
A few days later after she started teaching, she started to realize that there was a lot of hatred in the class when someone passed a note with a drawing of one of her students with big lips. After she saw the note she started to teach the class about a gang from history called the Nazis who hated all people who were not like them. To embarrass the people that they hated, they drew pictures just like the one on the note, but instead put it in magazines and newspapers. This lead to the Holocaust. Erin found that her students never even knew about the Holocaust, but it was something that intrigued them, and it was something they could relate to. When she saw how her students were reacting and changing, Erin even invited some Holocaust survivors to a dinner with her students so they could speak in person. Erin started to realize that to teach them how to read and write, she will need to give them books that will interest them or have a connection with their lives. Erin wanted them to read Romeo and Juliet because it was a gang story, but Erin couldn’t convince the school administration to let her give the books to her students. Her boss said that those kids would just write on the books and damage them, and they wouldn’t understand the story anyway. Erin decided to go out and buy her students books with her own money. When the students received the books that she bought for them, they noticed that the books were brand new, and it showed them that she really cared about them.
To get her students to open up their feelings, Erin tried something different. She gave each student their own journal to write in. She required them to write in their journals every single day. It didn’t really matter what they wrote about; all that Erin cared about was that her students write something. She told her students that she would not read the journals, but that at the end of the day, they could put their journals into the closet at the back of the room. If a journal was in the closet that meant that Erin could read the journal. The next day after, Erin gave them their journals, she looked inside the closet to see if their were any journals in the closet. To her surprise and excitement, all the journals were inside the closet, and Erin began to read them. Each day, everyone put their journals inside the closet. Erin’s students really enjoyed writing in their journals because they were never really encouraged to right what they felt. They always had an assignment to write instead of writing what they wanted to write. With the journals, the students began to understand their own feelings better, and Erin began to understand the extent of the problems in their lives. Her students became known as the Freedom Writers because they finally felt free to tell their stories. In 1999, these journal entries became a best selling book called, The Freedom Writers Diary. In 2007 the story was told in the movie called, Freedom Writers.
Erin Gruwell no longer teaches in the classroom. She now runs the Freedom Writers Foundation which tries to teach others to use her methods to reach students no matter what their challenges are. The Freedom Writers Foundation is based in Long Beach, California. Erin Gruwell herself does speeches as well as video chats for people around the country who want to learn her teaching methods.
Erin Gruwell was born on August 15, 1969 in California. She graduated from Bonita High School, in La Verne, California, and the University of California, Irvine. She went on to California State University, Long Beach to earn her Master’s Degree and teaching credentials. From there, she went on to her first teaching job at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.
Erin Gruwell was planning on becoming a lawyer, but when she watched the Los Angeles riots on TV in the early 1990’s, that made her change her mind and life dramatically. She saw people starting fires robbing stores, damaging property, and beating up other people because they were angry. Erin believed that she could change how people were reacting to their frustration. She decided to go to work at Woodrow Wilson High School, where the kids were from many different backgrounds, and where she felt she would have a chance to make a difference.
At Woodrow Wilson High School, Erin was assigned to teach English to 9th graders. On her first day at Woodrow Wilson High School, Erin quickly learned that teaching these kids was going to be more challenging than she imagined. It was hard for her to teach her class because some of the kids were in gangs, they didn't want to learn, and/or they had a lot of problems at home. There were fights in class as well. The students didn’t like her because she was white (one student said that whites had no respect for blacks), and because she didn’t understand their situations at all. All of the other teachers said that she had no idea what she was doing. Erin Gruwell’s father thought that she was making a mistake teaching there because it was dangerous, and even her husband thought she was wasting too much time with kids who would never learn or respect her. On Parents’ Night, no one showed up to visit her classroom. This showed Erin that her students were right. Their parents didn’t respect or care about their education.
A few days later after she started teaching, she started to realize that there was a lot of hatred in the class when someone passed a note with a drawing of one of her students with big lips. After she saw the note she started to teach the class about a gang from history called the Nazis who hated all people who were not like them. To embarrass the people that they hated, they drew pictures just like the one on the note, but instead put it in magazines and newspapers. This lead to the Holocaust. Erin found that her students never even knew about the Holocaust, but it was something that intrigued them, and it was something they could relate to. When she saw how her students were reacting and changing, Erin even invited some Holocaust survivors to a dinner with her students so they could speak in person. Erin started to realize that to teach them how to read and write, she will need to give them books that will interest them or have a connection with their lives. Erin wanted them to read Romeo and Juliet because it was a gang story, but Erin couldn’t convince the school administration to let her give the books to her students. Her boss said that those kids would just write on the books and damage them, and they wouldn’t understand the story anyway. Erin decided to go out and buy her students books with her own money. When the students received the books that she bought for them, they noticed that the books were brand new, and it showed them that she really cared about them.
To get her students to open up their feelings, Erin tried something different. She gave each student their own journal to write in. She required them to write in their journals every single day. It didn’t really matter what they wrote about; all that Erin cared about was that her students write something. She told her students that she would not read the journals, but that at the end of the day, they could put their journals into the closet at the back of the room. If a journal was in the closet that meant that Erin could read the journal. The next day after, Erin gave them their journals, she looked inside the closet to see if their were any journals in the closet. To her surprise and excitement, all the journals were inside the closet, and Erin began to read them. Each day, everyone put their journals inside the closet. Erin’s students really enjoyed writing in their journals because they were never really encouraged to right what they felt. They always had an assignment to write instead of writing what they wanted to write. With the journals, the students began to understand their own feelings better, and Erin began to understand the extent of the problems in their lives. Her students became known as the Freedom Writers because they finally felt free to tell their stories. In 1999, these journal entries became a best selling book called, The Freedom Writers Diary. In 2007 the story was told in the movie called, Freedom Writers.
Erin Gruwell no longer teaches in the classroom. She now runs the Freedom Writers Foundation which tries to teach others to use her methods to reach students no matter what their challenges are. The Freedom Writers Foundation is based in Long Beach, California. Erin Gruwell herself does speeches as well as video chats for people around the country who want to learn her teaching methods.