Freedom Writers Journal Response

          Erin Gruwell just got a job at Woodrow Wilson High in Long Beach, California as the English professor for the "not so great students." At first in her interview with the principal she is saying how she is going to make a difference and gives off the sense that she is going to do the traditional, standard way of teaching. The kids in her classroom come off as: rough, rugged street kids that don't seem to care about class. After the first day she realizes that will be no easy feat, being that there are so many different types of people with all sorts of different backgrounds in the classroom. All the kids different backgrounds makes them not get along with one another.
         Once class period she decides to play the "line game" in which she asked a series of questions like: have you ever had a friend killed due to gang violence? She wanted to learn about the class, but she also wanted to show the class that everyone is facing the same problems as one another, race not being included. That same class period she gives every student a journal for them to write whatever they may be feeling, and to express themselves. She tells the students she doesn't have to read them if they don't feel comfortable and that if they want her to read them just to place their journal in a cabinet for her to read. She doesn't know if any of the students will turn in their journals, and they all end up turning them. As the year goes on the class goes on many field trips and starts to befriend one another and start to really trust Erin.
        Erin returns for her second year at teaching class 203 and they read the Diary of Anne Frank and it changes the lives of the students including Eva since she is supposed to testify and is planning on lying under oath. She decides not to lie and faces her former gang to possibly kill her, but they decide against it. Erin's marriage to her husband finally wears and tears and they end up getting a divorce and she faces not coming back to teach her in her third year at Wilson High. She fights to come back and eventually does, coming back for the kids junior and senior years.
       Erin kept the kids out of jail, kept them safe on the streets, and gave them a reason to live. The kids in the story were all from harsh backgrounds and had to do bad things just to live another day. Erin gave them hope. I realized no matter how hard the obstacle may be, you can never give up on something, or someone.