Freedom Writers Notes

Freedom Writers Notes

·         Woodrow Wilson high school in long beach, CA 1992

·         On the first day of school the kids came in and just started talking to themselves. They didn’t listen to her trying to call attendance.  All the kids were divided by race.  Two boys started to fight, she got scared and called for help.

·         She has a sense of humor and tried to be funny for the kids, they were not impressed. The kids’ were fighting and she tried to stop them they don’t listen to her.

·         She came to class and played a Tupac song to teach poetry. She is trying to reach them on their level. They already knew the words and mock her like she doesn’t have anything to teach them. She makes a troublemaker move up to the front which means everyone has to move because the races can’t sit next to each other.

·         As classes go on, hardly anybody shows up to class.

·         She has a girl who is reading a magazine read aloud because she says “I know how much you love to read”

·         The kids pass around a picture of a person with big lips and give it to a black guy in class while the class is laughing. She grabs it from him and finally gets mad and makes them close their workbooks.  She said she saw a picture like that in a museum and instead of a black man it was a Jewish man. She said it was the biggest gang in history; they took over countries and wiped out anybody they didn’t like. They published pictures and facts saying that blacks and Jews were the lowest form of human life. And that’s how a holocaust happens.

·         They don’t think that her teaching them anything is  better them because they have to leave the class and deal with the gang life.

·          They say they hate her just because she is white. And they don’t respect her just because she is their teacher.

·         So when your dead you’ll get respect that’s what you think. You know what’s gonna happen when you die.  You’re gonna rot in the ground and people are gonna go on living and forget about you.  Do you think its going to matter that you were a gangster. Your dead and nobody is gonna want to remember because all you left behind in the world is this picture.

·         Nobody except the one white student in the class knew what the holocaust is.

·         She asks them to raise their hand if they have been shot at. Everyone except the white guy raised their hand.

·         She tried to get the book Anne frank and the principal said no bc the kids would ruin the books.

·         She talked to another teacher

·         In class she had the kids play the line guy. She asked them questions and if the answer to the question is yes then they step up to the line.

·         It showed all of the similarities the kids with different races had, and she could get to know them and some of the things that have happened to them.

·         She got them notebooks so they could write their stories. They can write about anything, past present future. She said she will only see if they wrote their entry without reading  it, unless they want her to read it then they can put it in a cupboard for her to look at.  All of the kids put their notebook in her cupboard for her to read.

·         She painted a banner and baked cookies for parent/ teacher conference but none of the parents showed up.

·         She continued to teach the students even though her dad said she should quit.

·         She got a second job at a department store to buy books and supplies for the kids. She thought that when the kid’s grades go up she would get more help from the school.

·         I can’t promise them anything I can’t deliver it only proves what they already know.

·         She got a third job at a hotel to get money for trips outside of long beach.

·         She took the kids on a trip during the weekend to Newport Beach to a holocaust museum, and then to dinner afterwards. She had holocaust survivors come to dinner and speak with the kids.

·         First day of sophomore year she had a banner saying toast for change with glasses of sparkling cider and book bags with the books they will be reading that year. She wants them to make a toast for change. She says every voice that told you can’t is silenced.

·         The kids have multiple fundraisers to bring over the lady who housed Anne frank to their school to speak to them.

·         She came and talked to the kids.

·         A girl has to move in with her aunt with her aunt for protection so she asks Ms. Gruwell  if she can stay late after school to do homework. Ms. Gruwell said she can stay as late as she wants and that she can even drive her to her aunts if it gets too late.

·         Her husband leaves her because she is too involved with her kids and spends too much time with them.

·        After a student misses some class because his brother was sentenced to prison for a crime he did not commit, he gave himself an F on a self evaluation, so she went outside the classroom with him and said; “ You know what this is? This is a Fuck You to me and everyone in this class. I don't want excuses. I know what you're up against. We're all of us up against something. So you better make up your mind, because until you have the balls to look me straight in the eye and tell me this is all you deserve, I am not letting you fail. Even if that means coming to your house every night until you finish the work. I see who you are. Do you understand me? I can see you. And you are not failing.”