Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwellis an American teacher known for her unique teaching method, which led to the publication of The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. The 2007 film Freedom Writers is based on her story...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionTeacher
Date of Birth15 August 1969
CountryUnited States of America
feelings feeling-sad negative
It would be easy to become a victim of our circumstances and continue feeling sad, scared or angry; or instead, we could choose to deal with injustice humanely and break the chains of negative thoughts and energies, and not let ourselves sink into it.
race views may
No matter what race we are, what ethnic background, sexual orientation, or what views we may have, we are all human. Unfortunately, not all humans see it that way.
moving acceptance ideas
It's not enough to be tolerant...now we're finally moving towards the idea of acceptance.
educational believe fighting
I believe that education is the greatest equalizer; thus, I will continue to fight to equalize the playing field in an educational atmosphere that is not always level!
dream heart men
It sounds strange, somewhat on the line between irony and absurdity, to think that people would rather label and judge something as significant as each other but completely bypass a peanut. ... World peace is only a dream because people won't allow themselves and others around them to simply be peanuts. We won't allow the color of a man's heart to be the color of his skin, the premise of his beliefs, and his self-worth. We won't allow him to be a peanut, therefore we won't allow ourselves to come to live in harmony. (Diary 18)
growing-up educational kids
I grew up in a very progressive family and with a great educational system, and I asked myself, 'Why doesn't everybody have these opportunities for a good education? So why not give back to these kids who didn't grow up with the same privileges I had?
mexican proud way
I have always been taught to be proud of being Latina, proud of being Mexican, and I was. I was probably more proud of being a "label" than of being a human being, that's the way most of us were taught.
teacher blessed teaching
I have learned that, although I am a good teacher, I am a much better student, and I was blessed to learn valuable lessons from my students on a daily basis. They taught me the importance of teaching to a student - and not to a test.
fighting matter diaries
Fights don't solve matters, they just make things worse. (Diary 19)
anger anne examples frank full handed hoping initial inspired journal negative notebooks positive poured stories students teens turned
Hoping they'd been inspired by the examples of Anne Frank and other teens who had turned negative experiences into something positive by writing about them, I handed out notebooks for my students to journal about their lives. There was some initial resistance. But then the stories poured out of them, full of anger and sadness.
learning life might robotic students tried tune whatever
When you're too robotic and scripted, the students tune you out. So I always tried to use different learning modalities - kinesthetic, auditory, visual, whatever might bring learning to life.
affect beauty classroom education family greater kids lessons positively taking
That's the beauty of education, kids taking lessons out of the classroom and back into their own world where they can positively affect their family, their friends, and their greater community.
schools
Schools are not equal. There are still the haves and the have-nots.
agents asked aware believe change socially
I believe that all students, when asked to be accountable for their actions and to be socially aware citizens, will become agents for change!