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MOVIE REVIEW
Freedom Writers
Starring: Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Patrick Dempsey
Written and Directed by: Richard LaGravenese
Paramount Pictures
It might be easy to dismiss Freedom Writers as a knock-off of Dangerous Minds , but that would be a shame. Keep an open mind. Think back to when you were in high school or if you are still in high school or college, think about the few teachers who really make an impact on you. Those that make you think. Those that make you question that world outside your own. Those that make you reach outside your comfort zone to push you to gain the most out of your education. These are the truly gifted teachers who do not just teach you what the syllabus claims you will learn each semester but allows you to garner skills and techniques that you can take away from school and use to make yourself a well-rounded, improved, unique soul.
There are many teachers out there who find novel approaches to make an impact on their classes and those stories are never told. This is one of those stories. I had never heard of the Freedom Writers Diary. Partly out of frustration in getting these teenagers to open up, First-year teacher Erin Gruwell gave her class notebooks in which to write down whatever they wanted to write down. If they wanted her to ready the notebooks, they could leave them for her at the end of class. Many did. Through these notebooks, the class had a safe way to express themselves and Gruwell had a way to learn about their struggles and difficulties as teenagers. Apparently, there are programs throughout the country, including Boston (a group of teenagers involved in the program were in attendance at the screening). The film's depiction keeps a raw, kinetic energy throughout and Hilary Swank turns in another charming, bold performance.
Gruwell [Swank] is an eager, idealist first-year teacher who wears pearls to teach students from the Hood. She never changes who she is in order for them to accept her. She just gradually allows them to learn a bit more about her and does so with grace and perseverance. Her class consists of the at-risk group underachievers, those that other teachers have more or less given up on and do not think will even make it past sophomore year. Why spend time on giving them adequate supplies to learn-new books or notebooks for example? She must fight the system more than once. Not over the curriculum she teaches but just by the fact that the school system has relegated this group of kids to remain at a certain level and never plans to challenge them to surpass it. The class is a collection of Latino, Black and Asian kids with attitude (there is one white boy who insists he is there by mistake). They are wary of Erin in the beginning. "You don't understand us," someone yells at her. "Make me understand," she says. Soon, she is working two extra jobs to buy the type of books she thinks this English class will learn from - one is The Diary of Anne Frank and another a book about a boy from a gang who escapes that lifestyle-- and is supplying them with journals that will not be graded but she expects them to write in each day. The class opens up to her, learns about themselves through writing and reading and realizes that through education they can make more of themselves. They develop a trust and more importantly, respect, in Erin and in each other. Freedom Writers is a touching, raw, inspirational journey.
By Amy Steele
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