Erin Gruwell, a first time teacher, is hired to teach a lower level academic class at Woodrow Wilson High School. Gruwell's class which takes place in Los Angeles, California in 1992.
Freedom writers movie#
To Learn More About the Alexi Emilia Rodriguez Memorial Scholarship Fund, Please go to or text “LEXI” to 44-321. Freedom Writers is a movie based on the true story and diaries of students in Ms. We hope, in her honor, that it will inspire you to take action for mental health awareness. Lexi has impacted all of us, so this episode is raw and it is real. In this episode, Erin Gruwell is joined by six of our Freedom Writer Family members who have each been touched by Lexi personally. They reminisce about the unforgettable moments they shared with Lexi, process her passing, and seek to turn their pain into purpose. In the end, their journal entries from that entire year were compiled together in a book called the Freedom Writers, which was published in 1999, and was the basis for the movie.Today's episode is serious and somber as we share that our Freedom Writer Family has lost a beloved member. Alexi Rodriguez, whom we affectionately refer to as “Lexi," tragically took her life. As a student author in our new book, DEAR FREEDOM WRITER, Lexi penned her pain in the letter "Perpetual Patient.” The loss of Lexi compelled us to create a safe space to discuss suicide, to encourage those experiencing thoughts of suicide to seek help, and to increase factors that promote suicide prevention. He could finally see that she had given the kids a new direction in life and provided hope for them. It was at this time that Erin's father started supporting her and encouraged her efforts. Miep Gies is one of women who helped hide Anne Frank during the Holocaust, and after reading the Diaries of Anne Frank, the class wrote letters to Miep and paid for her to come to their high school and speak to them.īecause of all the extra time Erin was putting into her job and students, her husband felt neglected and unworthy of all of her accomplishments, which lead to their unfortunate divorce. Gruwell had transformed her disrespectful and culturally isolated class into a family a family that actually got excited about going to school, making journal entries, participating, and working together on projects like fundraising to meet Miep Gies. She went above and beyond what any other normal teacher would've done to make her students feel special and make a connection with them. Gruwell took on two additional part time jobs to help pay for new books for her students since the school refused to provide her class with any resources. In these journals the student could write anything whether it be happy or sad entries, and she would only grade by their participation unless an individual wanted her to read their entries, which ended up being the case. Her first assignment which would carry over the course of the year was to write daily in a journal she had purchased herself for each student. Gruwell many weeks to accomplish any sort of breakthrough, but she persisted and presented learning to them in a way they would understand and be able to connect with. Unlike many other faculty of Woodrow Wilson High School who wait for the day when the problematic colored students quit coming to school, Erin aspires to help them. However, Erin was excited to try and make improvements in her classroom, because having been around her father in the courtroom, she believed that by the time juveniles are fighting battles in the court it is too late, but the real fighting needs to happen in the classroom. Her father, a lawyer and her reason for wanting to pursue education in the first place, was none the less displeased that Erin was wasting her time trying to teach students who didn't care to learn. She knew from the moment she walked in to her less than inviting classroom on the first day of school, met her seemingly disrespectful students, and witnessed a fight in her own classroom that her year wasn't going to be a walk in the park.
Gruwell's class which takes place in Los Angeles, California in 1992. Freedom Writers is a movie based on the true story and diaries of students in Ms.