Freedom Writers Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Freedom Writers Foundation is a non-profit organization created to "inspire young, underprivileged students to pick up pens instead of guns." It was founded by Erin Gruwell
, and John Tu
(cofounder of the Kingston Technology Company) is a benefactor.
"The organization’s overall purpose is to:
· Create opportunities for students to reach their full academic potential and aspire to higher education
· Publicly and systematically promote an educational philosophy that values, upholds, and honors diversity.
· Inspire students to realize their roles as vital members of their communities."
“Following the Rodney King Riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, the mood in our city was unsettling, and on our first day of high school, we had only three things in common: we hated school, we hated our teacher, and we hated each other." This is a quote from the original Freedom Writers. Brought together in the classroom of Erin Gruwell
, these students were taught to accept each other and accept themselves.
They all felt that they had been written off. “Low test scores, juvenile hall, alienation, and racial hostility helped us fit the labels the educational system placed on us: ‘unteachable,’ ‘below average,’ and 'delinquents.'" Gruwell helped the students to overcome their disadvantages by having them read books by other teenagers so they would be able to relate to the stories.
Gruwell also invited guest speakers to talk to her students, including Miep Gies
, a woman who helped Anne Frank's family hide during the Holocaust, and Zlata Filipović
, who wrote her own diary when she was only eleven years old. The students also went to a Holocaust museum in Los Angeles
called the Museum of Tolerance
.
The visit from Zlata Filipović
was the inspiration for the students' own writing. In the class they were able to write anonymous journal entries about what they faced in their every day lives. They were able to write about things that they had never had the chance to express before. Through this, they discovered that, “Writing is a powerful form of self expression that could help us deal with our past and move forward."
The class came up with the name “Freedom Writers” as a modification of “Freedom Riders,” a group of activists in the Civil Rights Movement
.
Since graduating, they have kept their promise of trying to change education. They have pursued their undergraduate and graduate degrees, while continuing to share their story and mentor students across the country about what it’s like to receive a second chance.
. In interviews, she has said that she thinks she is the one who changed the most. “Everything I was told not to do, I did. They told me not to smile. I smiled. They told me never to show emotion. How could I not be a person, though? How could I not be compassionate and give a student a hug when they were hurting? I changed the most. I became the student.”
She has said that she thinks teaching literature and writing is a great way to help people because there are so many ways to interpret any story. She would tell her students that she would teach them the rules so they could go out and break them.
Erin Gruwell first knew that she wanted to become a teacher through her father. Her dad was a civil rights activist in the U.S. When she was young, they would talk about equality and fighting for the underdog. He was later affiliated with the Anaheim Angels. He would always say that you should judge a batter by his swing and not by the color of his skin. So much of her sensibility came from her dad. After the Los Angeles Riots in the early nineties, she changed what she wanted to do. Until then, she had wanted to be a lawyer and go to law school. But she decided that she could do so much more that was proactive in a classroom than reactionary in a courtroom.
, De La Salle Education Center in Kansas City, Missouri
, and Dunbar Middle School in Fort Worth, Texas
. Groups inspired by the Freedom Writers include the Students of Unlimited Leadership [SOUL] Program in Chico, California
and the Waller Scholars in Atlanta, Georgia
.
The group has also drawn some negative attention. Connie Heermann, a teacher in Perry Township, Indiana, used The Freedom Writers Diary
as part of her curriculum and received a one and a half year suspension. Language and sexual content in the book may have contributed to the controversy.
Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell is an American teacher known for her unorthodox 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...
, and John Tu
John Tu
-Biography:John Tu was born in Chongquing, China and grew up in Taiwan. He studied electrical engineering at Technische Hochschule Darmstadt in Germany, then moved to California....
(cofounder of the Kingston Technology Company) is a benefactor.
About the Foundation
The Freedom Writers Foundation is a nonprofit organization which was founded in 1997. It positively affects communities by decreasing high school dropout rates through the replication and enhancement of the Freedom Writers Method."The organization’s overall purpose is to:
· Create opportunities for students to reach their full academic potential and aspire to higher education
· Publicly and systematically promote an educational philosophy that values, upholds, and honors diversity.
· Inspire students to realize their roles as vital members of their communities."
“Following the Rodney King Riots and the O.J. Simpson trial, the mood in our city was unsettling, and on our first day of high school, we had only three things in common: we hated school, we hated our teacher, and we hated each other." This is a quote from the original Freedom Writers. Brought together in the classroom of Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell
Erin Gruwell is an American teacher known for her unorthodox 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...
, these students were taught to accept each other and accept themselves.
They all felt that they had been written off. “Low test scores, juvenile hall, alienation, and racial hostility helped us fit the labels the educational system placed on us: ‘unteachable,’ ‘below average,’ and 'delinquents.'" Gruwell helped the students to overcome their disadvantages by having them read books by other teenagers so they would be able to relate to the stories.
Gruwell also invited guest speakers to talk to her students, including Miep Gies
Miep Gies
Miep Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and several family friends in an attic annex above Anne's father's place of business from the Nazis during World War II...
, a woman who helped Anne Frank's family hide during the Holocaust, and Zlata Filipović
Zlata Filipovic
Zlata Filipović is a Bosnian writer and author of the book Zlata's Diary.From 1991 to 1993, she wrote in her diary about the horrors of war in Sarajevo, through which she was living. Some news agencies and media outlets labeled her the "Anne Frank of Sarajevo"...
, who wrote her own diary when she was only eleven years old. The students also went to a Holocaust museum in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
called the Museum of Tolerance
Museum of Tolerance
The Museum of Tolerance , a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, USA, with an associated museum and professional development multi-media training facility in New York City, is designed to examine racism and prejudice in the United States and the world with a strong focus on the history of...
.
The visit from Zlata Filipović
Zlata Filipovic
Zlata Filipović is a Bosnian writer and author of the book Zlata's Diary.From 1991 to 1993, she wrote in her diary about the horrors of war in Sarajevo, through which she was living. Some news agencies and media outlets labeled her the "Anne Frank of Sarajevo"...
was the inspiration for the students' own writing. In the class they were able to write anonymous journal entries about what they faced in their every day lives. They were able to write about things that they had never had the chance to express before. Through this, they discovered that, “Writing is a powerful form of self expression that could help us deal with our past and move forward."
The class came up with the name “Freedom Writers” as a modification of “Freedom Riders,” a group of activists in the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
.
Since graduating, they have kept their promise of trying to change education. They have pursued their undergraduate and graduate degrees, while continuing to share their story and mentor students across the country about what it’s like to receive a second chance.
Erin Gruwell - Founder
Erin Gruwell is the woman who began the Freedom Writers and compiled her students’ stories into The Freedom Writers Diary. She started teaching in the fall of 1994 at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. In interviews, she has said that she thinks she is the one who changed the most. “Everything I was told not to do, I did. They told me not to smile. I smiled. They told me never to show emotion. How could I not be a person, though? How could I not be compassionate and give a student a hug when they were hurting? I changed the most. I became the student.”
She has said that she thinks teaching literature and writing is a great way to help people because there are so many ways to interpret any story. She would tell her students that she would teach them the rules so they could go out and break them.
Erin Gruwell first knew that she wanted to become a teacher through her father. Her dad was a civil rights activist in the U.S. When she was young, they would talk about equality and fighting for the underdog. He was later affiliated with the Anaheim Angels. He would always say that you should judge a batter by his swing and not by the color of his skin. So much of her sensibility came from her dad. After the Los Angeles Riots in the early nineties, she changed what she wanted to do. Until then, she had wanted to be a lawyer and go to law school. But she decided that she could do so much more that was proactive in a classroom than reactionary in a courtroom.
Freedom Writers in Other Schools
Schools which employ Gruwell's teaching methods include Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, De La Salle Education Center in Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, and Dunbar Middle School in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. Groups inspired by the Freedom Writers include the Students of Unlimited Leadership [SOUL] Program in Chico, California
Chico, California
Chico is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. The population was 86,187 at the 2010 census, up from 59,954 at the time of the 2000 census...
and the Waller Scholars in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
.
The group has also drawn some negative attention. Connie Heermann, a teacher in Perry Township, Indiana, used The Freedom Writers Diary
The Freedom Writers Diary
The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them is a non-fiction 1999 book written by The Freedom Writers, a group of students from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, and their teacher Erin Gruwell. It is the...
as part of her curriculum and received a one and a half year suspension. Language and sexual content in the book may have contributed to the controversy.
External links
- Official Foundation Website
- Learning for a Cause, a similar organization of Canadian origin.