Movies like Soul Surfer, The Help, and Cinderella Man are empowering movies. Among that list of films is The Freedom Writers, directed by Richard LaGravenese, was produced in 2007 (IMDb). The movie is a true story about a teacher who invests herself into the class of room 203. Erin Gruwell, the teacher of room 203, expects teaching to be a piece of cake, but on her first day she realizes it would be anything but. Her students are hostile towards each other and intentionally separate themselves by ethnicity, because they view themselves as different from one another. The determination of the movie gives viewers an empowerment to overcome any obstacle. Watching the students rise to their true potential encourages the viewer to handle any difficult
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Erin Gruwell is a first year teacher at the newly integrated school,Woodrow Wilson High School. These students are considered “unteachable” and staff members, like the junior English teacher and head of the English department, claim they only show up because of the state laws. At the start of the school year, the students want absolutely nothing to do with any person that is not the same race. Upon entrance of the classroom, they mangle desks into an accumulation of races and what they view as differences. The importance of this is that the students really are not all that different from one another. Any viewer of the movie can feel the tension between the different groups. To minimize the tension and segregation in the classroom, Mrs. Gruwell introduces “the line game” to the adolescents. The game shows the young adults the similarities they all have to one another. This learning activity sparks an idea in Gruwell and inspired her to assign the students creative writing notebooks. In them, the incohesive freshman write about their own personal experiences with gang violence, domestic violence, substance abuse, and racial tension. In these …show more content…
One of the students, Eva, says, “It's all about color, it's about people deciding what you deserve, about people wanting what they don't deserve” (“Freedom Writers(2007)”). Instead of looking down upon one another because of circumstances people are born into, society should lift one another up. The public should not be deciding what people deserve from a first glance because of their race, habits, gang involvement, or situation. The decision is not a bystander’s opinion or determination, it is the decision of the actions by the examinee. Being separated and rude should not be accepted. After all, every human is the same on the inside, despite race, religion, or group allegiance. Every individual feels the same, breathes the same, and lives the same. No one should have control over the way a human can feel and the emotions they discover. What matters is the kindness, compassion, and encouragement displayed by . In a world full of hate, it is easy to allow difficult situations to engulf and consume people’s minds and attitudes, but if society changes the character it puts forward and emits tenderness, cannot be overwhelmed by the darkness of any current
Erin Gruwell is a first year teacher at the newly integrated school,Woodrow Wilson High School. These students are considered “unteachable” and staff members, like the junior English teacher and head of the English department, claim they only show up because of the state laws. At the start of the school year, the students want absolutely nothing to do with any person that is not the same race. Upon entrance of the classroom, they mangle desks into an accumulation of races and what they view as differences. The importance of this is that the students really are not all that different from one another. Any viewer of the movie can feel the tension between the different groups. To minimize the tension and segregation in the classroom, Mrs. Gruwell introduces “the line game” to the adolescents. The game shows the young adults the similarities they all have to one another. This learning activity sparks an idea in Gruwell and inspired her to assign the students creative writing notebooks. In them, the incohesive freshman write about their own personal experiences with gang violence, domestic violence, substance abuse, and racial tension. In these …show more content…
One of the students, Eva, says, “It's all about color, it's about people deciding what you deserve, about people wanting what they don't deserve” (“Freedom Writers(2007)”). Instead of looking down upon one another because of circumstances people are born into, society should lift one another up. The public should not be deciding what people deserve from a first glance because of their race, habits, gang involvement, or situation. The decision is not a bystander’s opinion or determination, it is the decision of the actions by the examinee. Being separated and rude should not be accepted. After all, every human is the same on the inside, despite race, religion, or group allegiance. Every individual feels the same, breathes the same, and lives the same. No one should have control over the way a human can feel and the emotions they discover. What matters is the kindness, compassion, and encouragement displayed by . In a world full of hate, it is easy to allow difficult situations to engulf and consume people’s minds and attitudes, but if society changes the character it puts forward and emits tenderness, cannot be overwhelmed by the darkness of any current