You can watch the film here!

-The Plot-

In 1994 in Long Beach, California, Erin Gruwell has been accepted to teach English for at-risk students at Woodrow Wilson High School. Erin struggles to form a connection with her students and observes numerous fights between some of them, who are in rival gangs.

At school, Erin examines a racist drawing by one of her Latin American students and utilizes it to teach the class about the Holocaust, which everyone, except for White student Ben Samuels, has no knowledge of. She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys composition books for them to use as diaries, in which they talk about their experiences of being evicted, being abused, and seeing their loved ones die.

Determined to reform her students, Erin takes on two part-time jobs to pay for more books and activities, and spends a lot more time at school, much to the disappointment of her husband, Scott. The students start to realize that being rivals against each other, just based on race, should not be a reason to prohibit their friendships with one another.

The following school year comes and Erin teaches her class again, making it the second year that she is their teacher. On the first day, Erin makes her class propose a “Toast for Change”, allowing everyone to open up about their struggles and what they wish to change about themselves. Later on, the class makes enough money to have Miep Gies come to the United States and tell her story of her helping Anne Frank, her family, and the Van Pels hide from the Nazis; she then also persuades the students that they are heroes and that they “within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.”

Meanwhile, Erin asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary. Her husband divorces her, since he feels like Erin is devoting too much of her time to her students and not enough time for their marriage. Margaret tells her she cannot teach her kids for their junior year. After being encouraged by her father, Erin fights this decision, eventually convincing the superintendent to permit her to teach her kids during their junior and senior years, much to their elation. The film ends with a note that Erin successfully prepared numerous high school students to graduate and attend college—for many, the first in their families to do so.

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The main idea of this film is that the teacher’s approach can have a significant impact on the students. And we can imagine ourselves in such cases․The ending of the film showed the results of Mrs. Gruwell’s sufferings. 

At first the teacher was timid. It was because she was afraid of mistreating the children in any way. But from time to time, getting acquainted with everyone’s feelings and difficulties, she could find a solution. Its main purpose was to give hope to the children so that they would not be broken and depressed by the difficulties of life. 

Mrs. Gruwell was so dedicated to her work that even the lack of opportunities did not force her to back down. She devoted all his time and attention to school, and neglected her personal life. That is why all this led to divorce. But that did not discourage her either. 

One of the emotional lines of the film was Erin’s father’s support. At first, we see that the father was not so much in favor of Erin’s workplace, but he still supported his daughter. In addition to helping her children move around and arrange meetings, he supported her after divorce and didn’t let her give up everything. 

Mrs. Gruwell had faith on her students that no matter what is your social position, or education or where you grew up, what matter is you maintain respect and love and faith in those in need. She finally grew a tough skin and took charge instead of letting them walk all over her, which is how she succeeded in getting their attention. Once she got them to focus on what really mattered and to understand that each clique had some common ground, they hit the ground running and the rest was history. She successfully turned the classroom into a family. 

Her optimism and perseverance change the relationship with students from discriminate to mutual respect. 

After sharing their stories with one another, the students see their shared experience for the first time and open up to the idea that there are possibilities in life outside of making it to the age of eighteen. A teacher plays a key role in developing a student ‘s character.

The main idea of the film is racism. They show us the story of each in a very influential way. I do hope there are few places in the modern world where people with dark skin can be treated like that. Every person, regardless of skin color, can be kind-hearted or malicious, smart or dumb, educated or not.

Through books, meetings, personal diaries, she showed they are not alone, that many have been subjected to such treatment by the society. It made them look at their lives from an unfamiliar perspective and change their attitude towards many issues.