Gruwell and five of the Freedom Writers will make a presentation, read excerpts and sign copies of their book at noon Wednesday at the Cross-Cultural Center at UC Irvine, which is Gruwell’s alma mater. “I think it’s in a strange way the ultimate Cinderella story where good triumphs over adversity, and it makes people realize that anyone at any time can change.” “It’s struck a chord with so many people,” she said of the book. Other teachers are initiating journal writing in their classrooms. She’s received letters and e-mails from all over the country, some from school superintendents wanting to make her “teaching tolerance” course part of the curriculum. Gruwell said reaction to the Freedom Writers’ book, for which she wrote the narrative thread, “has been amazing.” And the year after graduation in 1998, Gruwell and some of her former students visited Auschwitz in Poland, the Amsterdam attic where Anne Frank hid and Bosnia-Herzegovina. They also held a candlelight vigil at the Washington Monument for victims of senseless violence and visited Holocaust museums and war memorials.ĭuring their senior year, the Freedom Writers traveled to New York City, where they received the Spirit of Anne Frank Award. While still in high school, the Freedom Writers, with the help of corporate sponsorship, visited Washington, where they hosted the secretary of education at a dinner. “One student went from a 1.5 to 4.0 and now wants to be a pathologist,” she said. In the process, Gruwell said, she saw grades and attendance dramatically improve. And she assigned the students to read “Schindler’s List,” “The Color Purple” and other books. She brought in guests such as Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank and her family during World War II. She took the students on a field trip to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. She received district approval of the new lesson plan, which allowed her to work with most of the same students throughout their high school years. Surprised by the ensuing silence and blank looks, she asked how many students knew about the Holocaust.īecause of that experience, Gruwell threw out the regular lesson plan the next school year and fashioned her own, one that focused on tolerance. Outraged, Gruwell told the students that such stereotyping is what led to the Holocaust. One day she intercepted a demeaning caricature someone had drawn of an African American student in class. The odyssey of the Freedom Writers began in 1993 when Gruwell, then 23 and fresh out college, was assigned to her first classroom as a student teacher. ![]() “Now they’ve turned into scholars and political activists.” “The majority were not even anticipating graduating from high school, let alone living, due to the gang violence in our city,” she said. Proceeds from the book’s sales are going to the Tolerance Education Foundation, which was established to help pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuitions.īefore they met Gruwell, few of her students were bound for college. He said he was so touched that the Freedom Riders of the ‘60s had been able to inspire the Freedom Writers of the ‘90s to follow in their footsteps and to fight the good fight.” “We met him, and he and I cried the entire time my students spoke. “The amazing thing is that John Lewis, one of the original Freedom Riders, is now a congressman from Georgia,” she said. Gephardt (D-Mo.) when she and her students were in Washington in November. Gruwell, the current California Teacher of the Year, said she was encouraged to run for Congress by House Minority Leader Richard A. “I realized if you can change a classroom you can change a community, and if you change enough communities you can change the world.” “By raising the bar, my students were able to raise their expectations and aspire to change themselves and their community,” she said. ![]() “I was encouraged to run solely based on what we’ve been able to do with the success of the Freedom Writers in raising the bar in academics and raising expectations,” said Gruwell, 30, a former Newport Beach resident who now lives in Long Beach, where she is a distinguished teacher-in-residence at Cal State Long Beach. On top of all that, Gruwell decided to run for Congress, declaring herself a Democratic candidate for the 38th Congressional District in December. In November, the congressional leadership committee invited Gruwell and several of her students to speak before Congress.Īnd in December they made an appearance on the “Rosie O’Donnell” show and taped a segment for “Oprah Winfrey” that has yet to air.
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