![]() Gruwell found that students alone were difficult to support, but the negativity from other teachers who should have been working with her was another struggle she faced. While trying to help her students, Gruwell faced other obstacles along the way: teachers and staff, all jealous of her success while working with the "hopeless" students. It was no easy task to transform the lives of these students, and in the times of hardship it would have been easy for Erin to give up, to quit and find an easier school, an easier job. During the hardships of helping her students, Gruwell was also subject to anger from her jealous peers:Įrin faced many challenges, from resistant students to resistant colleagues and school administrators. This willingness to help those who were trying to ruin her career, even though there was an easy way out of the situation, makes Gruwell courageous. Instead, Gruwell remained and continued to help him and other students, later breaking the wall of hatred between and being able to work with them. He had every intention of making her career miserable, and after hearing about his past encounters, she could have left and headed for a safer, more manageable school. (Gruwell 2)įor Gruwell, who had just began teaching and was looking for a promising future, this student was a scary barrier she had to overcome. His sole purpose was to make his 'preppy' student teacher cry. ![]() In those first few minutes, he made it brutally clear that he hated Wilson, he hated English, and he hated me. Word was that he had threatened his previous English teacher with a gun (which I later found out was only a plastic water gun, but it had all the makings of a dramatic showdown). He was a junior, a disciplinary transfer from Wilson's crosstown rival, and his reputation preceded him. ![]() Already in the early stages of her career, Gruwell was immediately confronted by a frightening student whom she described in her diary: Gruwell's continued support towards her students, despite them and other teachers putting her down, make her courageous. Erin Gruwell's willingness to help her students in spite of their hostility, and resolve to support them so they become successful show her courage and determination that make her a hero. A heroic figure must demonstrate the courage to do what is best for others, and the determination to see it through. Feeling safe and no longer alone, these students graduated high school and later, college. She brought out books such as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and connected them to the dangerous lives of her students showing that others, like them, had faced the same predicaments and anguish. Throwing aside the old curriculum set for English, Gruwell set out a new way to inform her students. Gruwell took this incident as an opportunity, and taught them about the Holocaust and other tragedies of history. During class one day, Gruwell recognized a racial caricature being passed among students of a known trouble-maker at school ("The Freedom Writers." Scholastic Action). ![]() Her students were considered hopeless, and unteachable due to their exposure poverty, gangs, and murders at an early age. However, all of that was put aside as Gruwell became a teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School in 1994, ready to step into the world of teaching ("The freedom writers" Instructor). In her early years, Gruwell aspired to promote human rights and change the world (HAGLUND). Guiding them from danger to safety, despair to happiness, and negligence to success, Erin Gruwell has managed to change the lives of her students and their futures. No one would have imagined that English teacher would be able to connect with those students on a deeper level, and relieve them of their hardships. ( ())Īn English teacher about to begin her career meets one-hundred and fifty students- all of which are at risk of failing school, and have negative influences affecting their lives.
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