How teachers are characterized in the 2007 movie Freedom Writers makes me jump out of my skin. Freedom Writers portrays the four years brand new teacher Erin Gruwell taught English at Long Beach, California’s Wilson High School. It is highly unusual for a teacher to have the same students for English classes all four years of high school, yet Gruwell did.
Gruwell stepped out of the classroom and started her foundation and speakers bureau after those four years. Through her foundation, Erin Gruwell has taken great strides in making high school English curriculum relevant and effective.
Composite characters
We’ve all heard, “The customer is always right.” Lately, it’s become, “The teacher is always wrong.” Characterizations of teachers in films such as Freedom Writers do not help.
With a movie you only have room for so many characters. Composite characters represent a group. Two out of two teachers, 100% of teachers (other than the lead character Erin Gruwell), are portrayed in Freedom Writers as racist and elitist. When you portray real-life institutions, you have a higher standard than completely made-up ones. If you are going to represent a profession, you should make an effort to accurately represent its different facets.
White savior movie
Ryan Fan’s Medium.com article The True History Behind ‘Freedom Writers’ quotes teachers from Gruwell’s four-year tenure at Wilson High School, “Drama teacher at Wilson, Randy Bowden, said that the story falsely implied that ‘no one cared about kids until she arrived and that he hadn’t heard a racist statement for 35 years since she came to the school.”
Fan notes, “Some see the movie as inspirational, but others see it as a white savior movie that implies that all inner-city kids need is a white savior teacher who can change their lives.”
Influencing public attitudes
A 2016 article in the Journal of Ethics and Mental Health says, “Film is an influential medium for shaping public attitudes… consequently, stereotypes presented in film have a lasting impact on audience members.”
Just because I have never met a teacher that resembles the two portrayed in Freedom Writers, doesn’t mean that they don’t exist but to infer that all teachers except for the lead character are biased against low-income students is careless storytelling at best.
I know so many teachers. I was a teacher. One of my gigs was as a long-term substitute in Long Beach Unified in 2000 in a school rougher than Wilson. Frustrated, drained, at times exhausted yes, but I held on to the moments I was able to connect to those students who were receptive or became receptive to learning.
The movie did not give the impression that teachers, other than Gruwell, dip into their own funds. My experience has been that most, probably all, teachers dip into their own funds. I bought my students journals on sale during the summer for classroom notes and many other items. I never met a teacher who did not spend significant amounts of money on classroom supplies.
Reaching low-income students
There are a variety of challenges when it comes to reaching low-income students. Many of them have experienced trauma, which affects their ability to be present, to concentrate, and much more. The teaching methods Gruwell developed effectively addressed some core issues, such as trauma. Students came to feel as if they were being heard and gained valuable self-knowledge and inner strength.
Gruwell gave an interview to PBS SoCal who did a documentary, Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart, about her teaching methodology and her Freedom Writers Foundation, which provides curriculum and training to teachers across the United States. When asked how she came about having her students pick up journal writing, Gruwell answered, “When my syllabus came back at me in the form of a paper airplane with the comment, ‘Why do we have to read books written by dead white guys in tights?’ I wanted to teach my students the universality of storytelling. If a story has great universal themes, it’s going to transcend race; it’s going to transcend geographies and transcend time.”
OMG, Paper Airplane Student expressed better than I ever could my frustration with teaching Shakespeare in 2022 when so much more relevant, relatable literature exists. And, he was able to turn his frustration into humor.
The digital divide and income inequality have segregated students, sometimes even within schools. In the PBS SoCal interview Gruwell says, “Unfortunately, schools today are as segregated if not more so than they were back in the 1950s. And I know that with great authority because I’ve traveled over the last 20 years to all 50 states with our book.”
“The new syllabus transformed the students…. Where Gruwell first found intractable divisions between students from different backgrounds, she suddenly began to see a growing understanding and even friendship,” the PBS SoCal article notes.
Antiquated Curriculum
Recently, I spent two years teaching high school English at a high school in Greater Los Angeles.
The first year I taught English Language Development (ELD). My second year teaching 9th grade English, 10th-grade English, yearbook, and Expository Reading and Writing (ERWC) ended up as distance learning two-thirds of the way through the semester in March 2020 due to COVID.
I was shocked that, for the most part, assigned 9th and 10th grade novels are the same ones that have been assigned in high schools for more than thirty years when there are so many far more relevant authors to which students could better relate.
However, I found the Expository Reading & Writing Course (ERWC) to be thought-provoking and effective. It was originally developed by the California State University system as a college preparatory English class for high school seniors. It now also has a course for 11th graders, modules for grades 7 through 10, and modules with designated English Language Development (ELD) for grades 9-12.
ERWC was designed to develop strong critical thinking skills and writing ability. The articles it provides are relevant, such as Alice Waters’ New York Times critique of the national school lunch program, and teachers are encouraged to use more recent articles (if they so choose) to teach the skills outlined in the curriculum.
Gruwell’s book of lesson plans, Freedom Writers Diary Teacher’s Guide, provides dozens of interactive lessons that promote collaboration, hands-on learning, creativity, and critical thinking.
A 2007 Los Angeles Times article “Did ‘Writers’ get it wrong?” provides a variety of feedback from the Long Beach community. Longtime Gruwell supporter Fran Sawdei said, “[But] she gave those kids manners, she gave them etiquette, she gave them connections.” Sawdei said, “She really taught them skills for life.”
I greatly admire what Gruwell and her foundation have achieved, but I think the storytelling in the movie is flawed and does not adequately address all of the complex challenges low-income students face and other potential remedies.
Movies influence culture. There are so many issues with the educational options afforded to at least a third of K-12 students in the U.S., but this movie makes it seem as if the right teachers are all that is needed and college solves everything for every student.
Our culture is based on the myth, “You can be anything you want to be.” That everyone has the same opportunities and the same innate talents. What’s implied is that if you don’t achieve medical school or law school or tremendous success as an entrepreneur or something else, then it’s on you.
Why aren’t we incorporating career education into the curriculum? What jobs go along with earth science, algebra, etc.? This can start in kindergarten. You can learn how to write by researching careers and interviewing individuals in those careers.
We need to educate students about trade occupations, community college options, and apprenticeships. Some trade careers are very lucrative and appeal to hands-on learners. Reading Shakespeare is torture to some. There are so many more relevant authors.