She ended up only teaching for 4 years, and that includes that first class of "Freedom Writers" when she was just a student teacher. She was a professional high school teacher for a whopping 3 years, got the Freedom Writers book published and hauled her ass out of there to be a "distinguished teacher in residence" at Cal State Long Beach. Oh, and she's a "motivational speaker" at $20K a pop. At least I taught 9 years.
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I Agree With You Completely. Ignorant And Uninformed People (i.e. Politicians) See Garbage Like This And Think That Teachers Suck And That's Why Education Is Failing. A Wonderful Teacher Is One Who Will Work Two Additional Jobs So She Can Take Her Kids To Dinner At A Hotel At The Cost Of Her Marriage And Having Any Kind Of A Life?! Please! I Would Have Liked To See A Movie Where This Woman Is In Her Seventh Year Of Teaching To See How Inspirational She Would Be. I Must Say I Was Thoroughly Impressed That She Had Kids Writing With Such Correct Grammar. I Mean, "My Moms"?! Really?!
shareAt least I taught 9 years.And did you change a whole class like she did? share
Assigning kids books that are two to three years below grade level and having them write informally with incorrect grammar and mechanics is not exactly changing our educational system for the better. And if she was such a miracle worker, why the hell did she jump ship the first chance she got instead of changing kids lives for the next 20 years?
shareThey weren't reading Spot on the Farm or Peter Pan, they were reading The Diary of Anne Frank, 12 Angry Men, Romeo and Juliet, Zlata's Diary, etc., books that I never even had in school, so don't talk down to the education they got and what they learned. Are they all in gangs and living on the streets, or dead from a drive by? Hmm? Education is far more than grammar and reading levels.
share"they were reading The Diary of Anne Frank, 12 Angry Men, Romeo and Juliet, Zlata's Diary, etc., books that I never even had in school..."
I am sorry that you didn't receive the education that you should have, but with the exception of Romeo and Juliet, the titles they read are taught between 6th and 8th grade. I know I read Durango Street in my 7th grade language arts class.
"Education is far more than grammar and reading levels."
Good luck telling that to TPTB that are currently on the "test the kids to death" train. If one is in a 9th grade English course, they should be reading 9th grade texts--that is part of the reason for the over-testing now.
"Are they all in gangs and living on the streets, or dead from a drive by?"
So again, why didn't she remain in the classroom another twenty years to save other adolescents from gangs and drive-by's? In fact, didn't she just follow the same group of kids from grade to grade? If only she had to "break in" a new group of students every year like the rest of us.
but with the exception of Romeo and Juliet, the titles they read are taught between 6th and 8th grade.
"...by the end they were all friends and had learned about what real bravery and real honor was and learned family wasn't decided merely by blood or gangs. Hell of a difference, isn't it?"
That's very nice but that's not what school is for and that's why education is perceived as failing in this country and why the idiots in power try moronic things to fix it.
"The school in my town teaches the kids that they don't have to read..."
That is really horrible to hear. I can assure that myself and most of the teachers at where I teach do not think that way. I make students read literature at their grade level and expect to learn the requisite vocabulary and grammar.
As I said, the teacher in this film is supposed to be viewed as an example of what a great teacher should be, and that's just not realistic. I mean, she worked two extra jobs and sacrificed her marriage and for what? She spent three freaking years in the classroom and from what I can tell taught her students very little of what she was supposed to teach them. She had the same group of students year after year. She might have been good at bringing people together but that's not what the job of a teacher is. If anything, it sounds more like the job of a counselor.
She might have been good at bringing people together but that's not what the job of a teacher is.
Sounds Like She Was Teaching History Rather Than English.
shareWhy must one exclude the other? Does an English class mean there can be no historical related curriculum involved? Where do people read Anne Frank's Diary, in history or English class? Would either side not benefit from having it?
shareWhile I agree there is some overlap between the two, it is not primarily the job of the English teacher to take students to the Holocaust museum. The history teachers at my school would slap me if I did that just as I would be angry if they took my students to see a production of a Shakespeare play. No matter how you want to look at it, the teacher in this movie neglected some very important parts of the curriculum she was supposed to teach. And again, The Diary of Anne Frank should be taught in middle school, not at high school.
shareAnd if they don't learn it by middle school because of incompetent teachers who wouldn't even give them books to read because they decided 'they're too stupid to learn anything', nothing should be done by high school to try and correct that? Should someone who has made it to their 70s without ever learning to read accept that and just remain uneducated because it should've been done 65 years before?
share"And if they don't learn it by middle school because of incompetent teachers who wouldn't even give them books to read because they decided 'they're too stupid to learn anything', nothing should be done by high school to try and correct that?"
And why is it exactly the job of a high school teacher to correct a child's lack of education from elementary to middle school? Students are supposed to learn how to read by third grade. After that, they are supposed to be reading to learn. And no, if for some reasons students did not read The Diary of Anne Frank by the time I get them in ninth grade English I am not going to sacrifice something that I'm SUPPOSED to actually teach to correct that. Why would I do that just so a teacher who has them two or three years later can complain that their students didn't learn what they were supposed to in my class because I was too busy teaching them something they should have learned in the seventh grade?! That is absolutely ridiculous. Each grade level has its own certain content and skill-based standards that are supposed to be met. If my students haven't read anything about Anne Frank that's a shame but, no, it is not up to me to teach them something they should have already learned, no was it the job of Ms. Gruwell.
The problem is nobody, not even you, can say in good faith that the kids would've been better off if she hadn't done what she did, because it was by her being unconventional and 'unorthodox' by other teachers' standards that they made history and showed the world something nobody was willing to look at. The steps she took made the kids realize it wasn't us vs. them, it was all of them together, they learned what real family is instead of their gang families that 'I'll get respect when I'm dead'. And it was by them being brought together through these means that they were so eager to study they would stay at the school until 10 o' clock at night and later. So, would they have been that eager to learn ANYTHING if they'd had...what WAS the prepared curriculum before Zlata and Anne Frank and Miep Gies and the Freedom Riders?
Your problem is you only think in little status quo regards, play by the rules, follow protocol, don't persevere for greater things, don't try making history, don't try doing anything different because it slows down the public school system, well when you do it that way, nothing gets done. People who make history and change the world come from all walks of life, and that includes teachers, and people who only follow rules don't make history. They did, they showed that the odds could be beaten. But you'd rather they just hum drum along in what, stuff they wouldn't even follow since it wouldn't have anything to do with them or their lives whatsoever?
I've said that's all well and good but all I'm saying is that a teacher who has spent less than four years in the classroom and did not teach students what they need to learn in his or her class is not someone who should be hailed as a template for what a teacher should be. Yes, she got kids who apparently hated each other to tolerate each other in her classroom and good for her for doing that, but she is not someone who can actually tell a teacher how to effectively teach, because writing "my moms" instead of "my mother" in a journal is not improving education in any way...I'm sorry, but it's just not.
Right now, in my state, fifty percent of my evaluation is based on students' test scores so how is doing anything that Ms. Gruwell did going to help me in any way? Please, tell me that!
I'm starting to wonder if you're an idiot. You are actually faulting the teacher portrayed in this film because her student used "my moms" instead of "my mother" in a journal that was supposed to reflect the student's experience and voice? Yep, you're an idiot.
shareWorks for me too. 'Oh she changed this whole class and made history and set the standards for future teachers to have the same success, but she did a bad job because she should've just stuck to the curricular and made no difference in anybody's lives'. And that's a TEACHER speaking? Sounds like a mixture of idiocy and jealousy to me.
shareFirst of all, I'm not the one calling anybody names. Second of all, if someone has never been in a classroom as a teacher, then what they have to say really has no relevancy. The job of a teacher is to TEACH their students the skills they will need to be successful in life, and no that does not include someone writing "my moms" in a journal. All we hear is how it's teachers' fault that students come out of public education not knowing anything, and yet we are supposed to view a woman who cared more about being her students' friend than their TEACHER as a template?! Yes, what Gruwell did was noble, but was it honest to goodness teaching, no, it wasn't! All I'm trying to say is that no one should view this movie as a representation of what good teaching should be.
shareSo, nobody in her whole class learned ANYTHING the whole time she was there, THAT'S what you're saying?
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The job of a teacher is not just to teach his/her students the skills they will need to be successful. It is also to teach students to reflect on their lives and on the lives of others, and to help them become better people and citizens. I think. But you are right: if the student who wrote "my mums" did not know to use "my mother" in formal writing, then the teacher probably failed to do her job. But remember, the journals her students wrote were supposed to express the student's voices and experiences. They were not formal essays someone might wright on a state exam.
Also, teachers today are too focused on preparing students for state tests. Literally, every time I have a teachers' meeting with social studies teachers from across the district, all they (we) do is to try to align the curriculum with the state standard course of study. We try to find content and questions that will appear on the test so our students will have high test scores. This will allow us to keep our jobs, maybe get raises, and it makes our superiors look good. Every teacher is expected to use the same power-points, do the same activities and give and review the same tests. Now, honestly, wouldn't you rather have a teacher who teaches you to reflect and communicate through writing-even if it means writing "my mums" instead of "my mother"- and sharing your experiences and listening to others, than learning the exact same Shakespearean play in the exact same way and writing the same formulaic essays as every other student in every class in the district? Sure you would. So would every other student who has ever lived.
This sucks. This is not why I became a teacher. As soon as the parents become aware that we are just preparing their kids to be robot-test takers, they'll rebel and take the schools back. I hope. F-ck the bureaucrats who control education. They don't know the students. They don't care about the students. This is not why I became a teacher.
All good points, trotsky, and unfortunate that THIS is what the schools have been reduced to.
Though really, how is 'my mums' any different from the 100 different ways kids address their grandmothers? Think about it, there's 'Grandma' 'Gramma' 'Nana' 'Gong-Gong', etc., if a kid writes that as their own true expression of how they feel, is the teacher going to flunk them because they don't write 'my grandmother'?
You are preaching to the choir, man. I hate that our craft has been reduced to test scores as well, but it's our unfortunate reality.
shareShe was never married at the time she taught at Wilson High School. That character was added into the movie as one more obstacle for Eric to overcome.
I enjoyed the movie overall, but find what Erin did to be very unrealistic and atypical. First, she only taught for 4 years AND had the same kids each year. She never got to experience other students, their successes, and their challenges. Second, she didn't play by the rules and I'm actually surprised she was even rehired the second year. Her department head should have recommended her dismissal. Third, her methods were unorthodox, yes but also impractical. Never would it be allowed for students to remain in a school building as late as is implied. Fourth, she should never drive her students anywhere. Fifth, by challenging the system and being their teacher for 4 years, it teaches the kids that they can get what they want if they complain loud enough. NOT REALISTIC. Just because you want something, does not mean you will get it.
I do give her credit though. She taught at Wilson in the years following the Rodney King verdict and the LA Riots. Truthfully, I don't know if I could have done so (and 'Im currently a middle school teacher in NYC working with special needs children). What she did do well was help them find their similarities (the line game, which I have done in my class) and see each other as allies rather than enemies. What she should have also done was to teach them that while they may be in the same class and act all lovey dovey, that's not how the real world works.
Did you even watch the movie? You obviously didn't read the book or you'd know that yes they DID stay at the school long after hours working on their projects. And be real, you spend 15-16 years in war torn gang neighborhoods where you can die just going out the door and you have to get the crap beat out of you and take it to prove you belong, you really think they don't know that the 'real world' isn't like their classroom?
shareWilson High is no where close to where people died in Long Beach during the riots. And this is the problem that I have with this movie. The director and writer made Wilson High seem very urban when the detached surburban homes adjacent to the campus were, and continue to be, rather expensive real estate.
shareShe spent four years with one single cohort of students, and was able to create a special environment for them during that time. Great.
Most teachers will not have the opportunity to have the same group of students for four years.
But she was unwilling to even try to replicate that success with a second group.
Celebrity over the book she published with her students allowed her to move out of K-12 education, and into a university job.
Exactly! Thank you!
sharewell she really had no reason to. She'd already strained her relationships with the rest of her family and friends by putting the needs of her students ahead of theirs; there was absolutely no reason to do the same thing over again. She managed to inspire a group of students to look beyond their circumstances and thing about bigger and better things, and that's all that matters. It's obviously far more than the vast majority of teacher have done for students coming from a similar background. Funny enough, it doesn't seem to have had that much difference considering the continuing lack of effort many put in teaching integrated students. If they really cared about trying to "replicate that success" they would look at their own teaching methods and try to see where they're going wrong. But they don't because they don't care, pure and simple. Has nothing to do with Ms. G in this regard.
shareHey... She found a niche and ran with it. Nothing wrong with that. However if you want to see a story like you mention about a teacher who turns the lives of kids around and continues to do so check out 'The Ron Clark Story'. It is really good... And cute.
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