CALIFORNIA
Teacher helps at-risk kids rewrite their
lives
In 1994, Erin Gruwell was an idealistic young English teacher eager to
make a difference in the lives of inner-city teens at Wilson High School
in Long Beach, Calif. She soon learned, however, that these 14- and
15-year-olds numbed by gang violence, drug abuse, racism and poverty had
little use for traditional English class, and that the education system
had all but forgotten them. "I had the kids who weren't supposed to make
it," Gruwell told 500 Menasha Joint School District staff members
Thursday during their opening session at Menasha High. "They weren't
supposed to graduate. They weren't supposed to make it through freshman
year."
But Gruwell believed in them anyway. Through the power of personal
connection she gave her at-risk students a voice, and inspired them to
pick up a pen and write their stories. She transformed their lives, just
as they changed hers, and their journey together became a book, and that
book became the movie "Freedom Writers," starring Oscar winner Hilary
Swank.
Today, Gruwell is head of Freedom Writers Foundation teaching teachers
how to use her lesson plans, and speaks widely on what it takes to help
scores of "invisible" kids realize they matter. Thursday she described
some of her "Freedom Writers." All 150 graduated from high school with
many going on to college and beyond. Their poignant stories moved many
in the audience to tears.
In an interview beforehand, Gruwell said her message to educators is
that reaching children means developing personal relationships with
them. "Today education is so politicized and influenced by unfunded
mandates, the profession gets beaten down. I stress the importance of
teaching to a kid, not to a test, and to go back to the reason why you
chose this profession in the first place. Most dedicated educators feel
it's a calling." She asked the educators, who gave her a standing
ovation, to think about the students they will meet when classes start
Tuesday.
About 50 percent of Menasha pupils are low-income, and the district's
diversity rate is 25 percent.
Some who walk through the classroom doors will be poor, some refugees,
some are going through a divorce at home and some have parents who have
been laid off, she said. "They all need to be heard. They all need to be
seen."
Menasha High teacher Lori Baccus uses Gruwell's approach with her
English Language Learners, most of them Hispanic and Asian. She said she
has seen its power in unlocking their learning and making them feel
heard. "They really get into telling their stories and the activities
and that makes the kids write. They want to write and that is what I
want."
Gruwell likes to talk with young people wherever she speaks, and
Thursday she met Denise Albarran, 17, a senior in Baccus' ELL class.
Gruwell invited the teen on stage and hugged her. It was an emotional
and tearful moment for both, and a thrill for Albarran as Gruwell
challenged her to go back to school senior year and "represent," telling
her story with dignity. "Oh my God, it was really moving," said Albarran
afterward. "I thought I might meet her, but nothing like that."
Albarran, who enjoys journaling in ELL class, once was like many of the
teens Gruwell described. "I used to go to school in Chicago and I did a
lot of fighting and getting detentions and suspensions. When I moved
here I decided to change because I didn't want my little sister to
follow in my footsteps." She said none of her siblings graduated from
high school. "I want to be the first, and go to college and study to be
a nurse."
Kathy Walsh Nufer
29 August 2008
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