Book: The Freedom Writers Diary
Author: The Freedom Writers and Erin Gruwell
Genre: Nonfiction
SPOILER WARNING
The Freedom Writers Diary Report
Plot Summary: Mrs. Gruwell is a new english teacher at Wilson High School. The school is located in a town with a bad reputation for gangsters. When she was a Student teacher, she found a racist caricature of a “bad” Student, Sharaud. She claims this was the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust, but no one knows what the Holocaust is; they just know the violence and discrimination of their everyday lives. So Mrs. Gruwell shifts the lessons to teach about tolerance. When she is done with her role as Student teacher, she gets her first real teaching job teaching “at-risk” freshmen. …show more content…
A student is troubled by family drama. The students will get to have Gruwell next year as well. Miep writes a farewell letter to the Freedom Writers. Gruwell is amazed by all the class has gotten to experience. A student is tired of being asked for a “black perspective” on everything because they are black. The class is studying Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the student writing compares the writer’s philosophy to their own tragic life event. A large fight breaks out, and the student feels bad that they didn’t go in and help someone who was being beaten up. A student learns the true meaning of self-evaluation is saying what you are truly trying for. A depressed student is reading a book with a suicide and relates it to their own failed suicide attempt. A student who doesn’t like reading is enlightened by a book read in Ms. Gruwell’s, and they are tired of being able to get away with so much; they WANT someone to law down the law on them. A student gets offered a job from John Tu, the millionaire. They acknowledge gender separation, or misogyny. A student reading a book about abuse remembers when they were molested by their uncle. Another student reading that book has an abusive boyfriend. Yet another student reading that book remembers when her step dad abused her