The movie “Freedom Writer’s” was inspired by a book titled “The Freedom Writer’s Diary,” written by Erin Gruwell, based on a class at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School in Eastside, Long Beach, California in which she taught. The movie follows Gruwell’s experience trying to teach a class of delinquents and unteachable students, as people labeled them, who were all separated into their racial groups and not very fond of one another. Through a series of trials and tribulations for the teacher, she managed to get the students to start diaries, and in the diaries they wrote about their lives, which were often, very traumatic and sad to say the least. Gruwell eventually got the students to write their diaries in book formation and transformed it into the book mentioned earlier.
Most students wouldn’t know just by looking at her, but English Teacher Cindy Edwards is actually 1 of 300 freedom writer teachers in the world.
“When I consider the magnitude of my being selected as one of so few trained teachers in the world, I know that I have a great responsibility placed on my shoulders to perform at my highest level as a teacher,” Mrs. Edwards said. Just like the teacher in the movie, you get the feeling that Mrs. Edwards really loves being a freedom writer teacher and she strives to inspire her students to take part in it as well. “I feel an excitement for the things that I have learned and for all the possibilities that I can place at the hands of my students.”
“Freedom Writers Foundation,” which is home to the actual students who attended the high school in California, room 203 to be exact. On the website the students go on to tell how they came about, stating that after that LA riots and the OJ. Simpson trial they hated everything about school, including their peers and their teacher. It also talks about how they knew that society had long written them off, but their teacher Erin Gruwell, who they referred to as Mr. G, had used their similarities to bring them together. Reading books like “The Diary of Anne Frank,” “Zlata’s Diary,” the students realized that just like Anne and Zlata, the felt trapped in a cage and had seen their fair share of violence, which is depicted in the film, and is the reason behind Mrs. Edwards’s interest in the program.
“In 2007 teachers in our district had the opportunity to attend a special showing of the movie The Freedom Writers. After attending that movie I investigated The Freedom Writers Foundation on the internet and discovered the application process,” said Edwards who too was having problems with a group of students in her class at the time, “I was working with a group of students who seemed to need more than what I had to offer. I needed more strategies to help these students discover their real potential. I applied to be a Freedom Writer Teacher and was selected.”
Just like the book and the movie, the stories of those students written in those journals were real, raw, and eye-opening. Those stories made the students face their demons and reflect on the things they had done in their lives as well as the things people had done to them. Through writing, those students found out things about themselves and others that they never realized or wanted to face. As the students of room 203 said on their website, they discovered that writing was a powerful form of self-expression that helped them deal with their past and move forward.
Mrs. Edwards told a story about a time in her freedom writing experience where she exposed to a story about two boys who had met in a very unfortunate way, and crossed paths again later on in life as two completely different people.
“One was a Skin head named Tim with much hate in his heart for people who were different than him. The other was a teenager named Matthew who had been kicked out of his own home at age 13 for telling his mother he was gay,” said Edwards on the story she say’s touched her heart, “Tim and a group of his friends chased Matthew down on the streets of West Hollywood and beat him until near death just for fun. Matthew survived. Tim, after having his own son and realizing the hate that he was teaching him, slowly changed. He began to volunteer his time at the Museum of Tolerance where Matthew worked,”
Mrs. Edwards goes on to say that the two gentlemen met again as adults and both recognized who the other one was. Edwards says the boys took her and other freedom writers through the steps of awareness, tolerance, understanding, acceptance, and brotherly love. The two men now have a documentary called Facing Fear that is on the list for an Academy Award for documentaries.
“These men are both serving the world as a hate crime attacker and a hate crime survivor and advocates for acceptance and change,” said Edwards those journals were a way for them to say anything they wanted without being judged. It was their own form of therapy, “With this story comes a strong message that makes me want to stand up for any student who has suffered at the hands of others.”
Mrs. Edwards recently attended the Freedom Writer Teachers Empowerment Symposium, which was scheduled to bring all 300 Freedom Writer Teachers along with the 150 original Freedom Writer Students back together for a time of renewal. Speakers included David Pickler, the National School Board Association President and people selected to deliver messages to them to promote the Freedom Writer Teacher methodology and to help others engage, enlighten and empower their students.
