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It gives people a better look at the lives of today's teens, especially the lives of those from "the hood". Her willingness to not give up enabled these children to shake loose the shackles of their past and became successful.
I think that it really shows how love can truly change a person. This is an awesome book.
Gruewell for her dedication and love she showed the teens. These children had all experienced so much heartache and devastation.
I really admire Mrs. I believe everyone should truly read this book.
It also lets people know that they do have a chance to succeed and that they can overcome any obstacle placed in front of them no matter where they may be from.
How different so many at-risk children's of United States lives would be if the Ms. To have such global insight at such a young age is remarkable. I was moved by the changes these teens made after becoming a member of the Freedom Writers and by just the simple fact that they were still alive despite their family lives, their neighborhoods, drugs,alcohol,poverty and the lack of inspiration and encouragement offered by so many of their teachers throughout their school years. As a retired teacher and social worker, who worked with at-risk preschoolers I found this book very moving. With the lives they were living what a joy it was to see that a little candle of just being a teenager was able to thrive. I really like how these teens looked outside themselves and could see the similarity between the pain and intolerance they faced and that of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovie.
Now I wish that I had done more with those children who needed more than a day at school but rather a "family-like" figure who would listen, challenge, inspire and find ways to really make a difference in their lives.
Gruwells of the world was the norm for teachers instead of the exception.
[Although I think that several were written by the same person as the story line of some entries seemed to follow one person's life].
As I read the diary entries I could picture the diarists as children that I worked with who had grown to teenagers and had had no one to keep them following the path they started as a preschooler.
I wish that the author of each entry could have some sort of identification so the reader could have followed the growth of the teen.or maybe each entry was written by a separate teen.
I remember being a first time teacher.
I thought I had done a good job.
At times the comments of these teens were "So self-absorbed and teen-like".
And like most of these inspiring teacher books it's a little heavy on the moralizing and light on the actual hard work involved. But the main thing that makes this book decent is that it's about the students. The diary entries are put up against each other in order to tell a story. The first editing process is choosing what to put in and what to keep out. She's more the kind of teacher that becomes an example of what not to do when teaching. There's a lot of hard work but there's also natural ability.
And this one has a distinction of being the story of a teacher who is an unrepetant liberal. Most of these hardcore inspiring teacher books seem to have a rightwing bias in which the teacher is a Joe Clark like crazy DISCIPLINARIAN who makes them knuckle under like it's a boot camp before they can learn. This is one of those inspiring teacher books. Some can overcome their social limitations but most can't - not on their own at least. Eventually she wore them down. Yes, there is some definite editing in the book. To expand on that theme, these writers overcame their situations because they had someone who believed in them and respected them.
Erin Gruwell could be an idealist because she was new and she was also very stubborn in her idealism. The great teachers are like the great writers, painters and athletes because they have so much natural talent that they can't really explain how they do most of what they do. Obviously the early entries are a little too polished to be believable as 9th grade journal entries, but Jim Carroll edited The Basketball Diaries and that didn't make them any less "authentic". As in the story of "that Americorp volunteer who stupidly gave his address to his students and two of them tried to rob him and killed him." But there's a terrific earnestness going through this book that trumps one's natural cynicism. And the fact of the matter is that she succeeds because she did respect her students and she cared about their welfare. They were just polished up before publication.The main point of the diaries is that there are a lot of intelligent articulate people in crappy situations who are marginalized by their situations. Everyone needs that; but for some it's a very rare commodity.
I was further saddened to see that all the journal entries were written with the same voice. Like many other reviewers, I was looking forward to this book as an inspirational read and was disillusioned on page one. Finally, if you're going to edit the heck out of something, then leave out all of the "I love Ms. The journal entries are clearly not written by youth, especially those with negative attitudes toward learning. I'm really sorry that people might believe such a polished journal entry would come from an angry teenager on the first day of school. Gruwell". BS.
Read The Freedom Writers Diary to learn about the hard and challenging life these teens went through and how they resisted any kind of instruction. By the end of the book, you can tell Mrs. This book, filled with real entries, is hard to put down. You wish you were there, witnessing the improvements every single teen made as they change their lives, the lives around them, and the world. Gruwell, the brave teacher who taught these students everything they know, worked hard to change the reputations of the kids and the way they think about themselves. Gruwell, tries to change all that.
The Freedom Writers Diary, taking place from 1994 to 1998, is all diary entries from the real students at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Mrs. Do you think you could ever be the teacher of a handful of students that don't know what the Holocaust is, but have been shot at, at least once. You can experience through what they write, how the girls and boys change their outlook on life and everyone around them.Anyone who likes to read about the real world and the ups and downs of life will love this book. They think she doesn't care about them. Gruwell really does care for the class and everyone in it by what the students are writing. This book is different, in that it's real entries from real teens, working to better themselves and their reputations.
Gruwell and the way she teaches. One teacher, Mrs. You want to know what every teen's perspective on a given situation is. In the beginning of the story, you can tell by the entries that the teens in the class don't think very much of themselves and don't respect Mrs. The students think she's just another teacher who thinks she knows what it's like to grow up in the ghetto but really has no idea. Whenever something intense happens, which is often, being in a big ghetto in California, the teens react in different ways. This is the real deal.Natalie
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