Is Freedom Writers based on a true story?
Yes, ‘Freedom Writers’ is based on a true story. LaGravenese developed the script for the film from the 1999 book ‘The Freedom Writers Diary,’ a compiled version of the journal entries by the real Erin Gruwell and her students. In 1994, Gruwell joined Woodrow Wilson High as a student-teacher. The students that she was assigned to were reportedly regarded as “ unteachable ” by school administrators.
What is the plot of Freedom Writers?
The movie “Freedom Writers” was about Erin Gruwell, a young teacher who accepted a position teaching freshman and sophomore English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. Mrs. Gruwell dramatically transformed a chaotic class of hardened inner city youths.
What was the teachers name in Freedom Writers?
- Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell
- Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey
- Scott Glenn as Steve Gruwell, Erin's Father
- Imelda Staunton as Margaret Campbell
- John Benjamin Hickey as Brian Gilford
- April Lee Hernández as Eva Benitez
- Mario as Andre Bryant
- Jason Finn as Marcus
- Vanetta Smith as Brandy Ross
- Antonio Garcia as Miguel
What is the summary of Freedom Writers?
Summary - Freedom Writers Summary The Freedom Writers Movie is based in a real story about a teacher (Erin Gruwell) who changed the lives of young people separated by their ethnicities. Mrs. G, as her class calls her, is a first timer and she never really expects the type of class she is getting.
What happened to the real students from Freedom Writers?
0:002:21Original Freedom Writer speaks to youth - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipAnd begin writing a new chapter in your life just as he did by age 16 Scott had lived in 26MoreAnd begin writing a new chapter in your life just as he did by age 16 Scott had lived in 26 different places lost his best friend to a brutal murder. And his father in jail.
Did any of the Freedom Writers graduate college?
Much has changed for Gruwell and her former students in the last 20 years. Gruwell said all of the Freedom Writers graduated from high school and most went either to a city college or university. More than half graduated with college degrees. Several had advanced degrees.
How many students were in Freedom Writers?
150 highA teacher of hope. The film is based on The Freedom Writers Diary, the New York Times Bestseller that chronicles Erin's extraordinary journey with her 150 high school students who dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Did Erin Gruwell's husband leave her?
Erin and her husband did divorce in real life, and for similar reasons. All the pain from her personal life just pushed her more to help her students graduate. And the more her dad saw this, the more he began to support her. Although Gruwell gave up a lot for The Freedom Writers, she also gained a lot.
How accurate is the movie Freedom Writers?
In real life, however, Erin Gruwell actually did do some great work at Woodrow Wilson High School (whose name a Change.org petition is now urging to change) in Long Beach, but real life is, of course, more ambiguous than the movie. Gruwell did a lot of good with her student, but other teachers in the school did too.
What is Ms G husband attitude toward her teaching career?
What is Ms. G's husband's attitude toward her teaching career? His attitude is a bit envious and hostile. He feels incompetent because she's teaching students that society has deemed at risk.
Why is Freedom Writers banned?
Banning of the book in schools Administrators objected to racial slurs and sexual content in portions of the book.
What did the students learn in Freedom Writers?
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves and pursue education beyond high school. It's 1994 in Long Beach, California.
How many Freedom Riders were there?
The original group of 13 Freedom Riders—seven African Americans and six whites—left Washington, D.C., on a Greyhound bus on May 4, 1961.
Is Erin Gruwell remarried?
Scott CaseyErin Gruwell / Spouse (m. 1990–1994)
What happened to Andre in Freedom Writers?
He also liked to participate in class assignments such as reading the diary of Anne Frank, and raising money for Miep Gies to come to Wilson High. But, when he went to his brothers trial and found out his sentence was declared, Andre went back to his old ways by selling drugs and skipping school.
What happens to Eva in Freedom Writers?
Afterward, Eva is attacked and threatened, but ultimately spared by her fellow gang members, who dissociate from her, and she moves in with her aunt for safety. Meanwhile, Erin asks her students to write their diaries in book form. She compiles the entries and names it The Freedom Writers Diary.
What is the movie Freedom Writers about?
Freedom Writers is a film about modern-day Freedom Riders. The Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses in the early 60s to test the US Supreme Court’s decision to desegregate buses. The Freedom Writers were students inspired by their pioneering teacher to embrace racial integration.
How long did it take Richard LaGravenese to write the Freedom Writers Diary?
It took writer and director Richard LaGravenese six years to craft a narrative from The Freedom Writers Diary’s entries. From that story, he created the inspiring film Freedom Writers.
Who encouraged her students to journal their experiences?
Erin encouraged her students to journal their experiences, bringing them closer together. Excerpts from the journals feature in The Freedom Writers Diary . Erin talked to PBS SoCal about how she got her students to share their journal entries:
How did Gruwell's approach work?
Gruwell’s approach worked as the students learned of the power of personal storytelling. They also learned of the destructive potential of racial stereotypes and the ruin racial wars had brought upon the world.
Who were the Freedom Writers?
The Freedom Writers, including Erin Gruwell (front, center), in 1999. (File photo) Sue Ellen Alpizar wiped away tears as she talked about the darkest days of her teenage years in Long Beach. That was 20 years ago, but she remembered her suffering like it was yesterday.
How many teachers have attended the Freedom Writers Institute?
Gruwell said more than 600 teachers have attended the Institute from all 50 states, along with 20 countries.
Where did Sue Ellen graduate from?
And after the diagnosis, Sue Ellen’s grades improved. She graduated from Wilson and obtained degrees from Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach. She now works in the Freedom Writers Foundation created by Gruwell in 1997. “Erin was the first person to tell me I could go to college, the first person who believed in me,” Sue Ellen said.
What room was the Freedom Writers documentary in?
A documentary depicting what happened before, during and after the Freedom Writers entered Room 203 at Wilson 20 years ago will be shown free from 7 p.m.-9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Crystal Cove Auditorium at University of California, Irvine. The documentary, “Freedom Writers, Stories from an Undeclared War,” will be followed by a question-and-answer period and book signings by Gruwell and some of the Freedom Writers.
Who is on the cover of Freedom Writers Diary?
Many of those stories were published in the bestselling book, “The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.” Sue Ellen is on the cover of that book with Gruwell and other Freedom Writers. This also is the 10th anniversary of the Freedom Writers movie starring Hilary Swank.
Who said "I am proud to watch my kids become adults"?
Speaking like a proud parent, Gruwell said, “Over the years, I have been proud to watch my ‘kids’ become adults. I am still their cheerleader, their mentor, their confidante. I learn from them every day, and, in this way, I have also become their student.”
Who is Sue Ellen?
Sue Ellen was an original member of 150 Wilson students who became known as the Freedom Writers , now celebrating the 20th anniversary of their senior year at Wilson High in 1997-98 and telling similar stories of their inspirational years in Gruwell’s classes.
Why did Erin create the Freedom Writers Foundation?
Erin created the Foundation to spread the message about issues teenagers face in high school.
Who encouraged students to record their personal lives in journals?
Erin ripped up the rule book and taught English her way. Instead of Shakespeare, students read The Diary of Anne Frank. Gruwell encouraged them to record their personal lives in journals, which excerpts would later form the New York Times Bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary .
Why does Erin feel like the teachers trained by the Foundation have far better chances of success than she did?
Erin feels like the teachers trained by the Foundation have far better chances of success than she did because they have help. She told PBS SoCal:
Did Ellen have dyslexia?
Ellen also had dyslexia, a fact missed by other teachers but quickly noticed by Erin. After the diagnosis, Sue’s grades and life improved. She’d been told that she wouldn’t make it to college, but Erin restored her self-belief.
Who wrote the Freedom Writers Diary?
Freedom Writers written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, based on the book, The Freedom Writers Diary, by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell. “At 16, I’ve probably witnessed more dead bodies than a mortician,” says a Woodrow Wilson High School student, before matter-of-factly describing a life in which gang and domestic violence are everyday ...
How old is Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers?
Many such lives fill one of the school’s freshman home rooms in Richard LaGravenese’s new film, Freedom Writers. Novice teacher, 23-year-old Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank), steps into Room 203 at the Long Beach, California, secondary school barely two years after the 1992 Los Angeles riots during which minority neighborhoods exploded following ...
What is Erin shocked about?
The daughter of a civil rights activist, who idealistically wants to teach at an integrated institution, Erin is shocked at the level of self-segregation among her students and the hostility between the different ethnic groups. After intercepting a racialist drawing depicting a black student with exaggerated features, she is provoked beyond control. With justifiable outrage, Erin cites the role similar caricatures of Jews played in the Holocaust.
What is the book that Gruwell wrote about her students?
One of the vindications of Gruwell’s enlightened educational approach lies in the writings of her students, compiled in the book, The Freedom Writers Diary , which so moved the film’s creators. Each entry stands on its own, as the following sampling demonstrates:
What is Room 203 about?
Erin finds herself “stuck in a classroom full of troubled kids who are bused in from bad neighborhoods.” Room 203 is a volatile mix of African American, Latino, Asian and white freshmen, who are classified by the school’s callous administration as “unteachable.” Homelessness, drug abuse, histories of criminal activity, incarcerated family members and gang involvements are but a few of the ills crushing the students. They sink or swim in an “undeclared war” in which contending gangs vie for the status of “Original Gangsters (OGs)” in the ’hood. Options offered by parole and probation officers are school or juvenile hall.
Who is Margaret Campbell?
Erin’s bureaucratic opposition, Imelda Staunton’s Margaret Campbell, chills as a 30-year educator , who, fearing and disliking the underprivileged kids, warehouses books rather than make them available to the “unteachables.” She and some of the teachers yearn for the old Long Beach high school before the flight of a portion of the white, middle-class student body from desegregation.
Is Freedom Writers a perfect piece?
Freedom Writers is not a perfect piece and suffers from a certain lack of imagination, particularly in its linear storytelling and uninspired cinematography. But its compassion and uncompromising emotional thrust largely compensate, making it one of the few recent films that elevate and move a viewer due to its genuinely democratic sentiment. It stands against Bush’s odious and misnamed No Child Left Behind Act in favor of an egalitarian view of education, bringing to mind an outlook championed so passionately by the remarkable American educator Horace Mann (1796-1859), who wrote in 1848:
How many Freedom Writers graduated from high school?
All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and many went on to attend college. Between 1994 and 1998, the Freedom Writers garnered a great deal of media coverage, including appearances on Primetime Live, The View and Good Morning America.
What is Freedom Writers based on?
The 2007 film Freedom Writers and 2019 PBS documentary, Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart, are based on her story. She was an incredibly influential teacher who not only taught her students, but ensured their safety at home.
Why did Gruwell give her students journals?
Writing journals became a solace for many of the students, and because the journals were shared anonymously, teenagers who once refused to speak to someone of a different race became like a family. In the fall of 1995, Gruwell gave each of her students a bag full of new books and had them make a toast for change.
Who wrote the Freedom Writers Diary?
The Freedom Writers Diary is a 1999 book written by the Freedom Writers with intros by Erin Gruwell. It is the basis of the 2007 movie Freedom Writers, starring Hilary Swank as Gruwell, ...
Who was the teacher that took the students to see Schindler's List?
Gruwell took the students to see Schindler's List, bought new books out of her own pocket and invited guest speakers. After her year of student teaching, Gruwell returned to Wilson as a full teacher, this time with a class of sophomores.
Where is Erin Gruwell from?
Erin Gruwell was born in Glendora, California to Stephen Douglass Gruwell, a formal baseball scout for the Anaheim Angels, and Sandra Faye Alley. Her parents divorced when she was still a young girl. She graduated from Bonita High School in La Verne, California, and the University of California, Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her master's degree and teaching credentials from California State University, Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.