#Freedom writer pro how to#
#Freedom writer pro movie#
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If there is something suspect about this genre's comforting images of white role models 'elevating' underprivileged minority kids, it's worth noting that in the best of these films a recovered class-consciousness cuts both ways. 'It's not like I pictured it,' she confesses tearfully to her husband (an attractively low-key Patrick Dempsey) after the schoolyard has erupted in a riot. Unprepared, certainly, for students wearing electronic ankle bracelets and packing heat.

#Freedom writer pro movie#

DeVito has long-since graduated to producer status, but the song remains much the same as two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank squares up to a room of adolescent drop-outs and lost causes from 'Little Cambodia, Wonderbreadland, the ghetto, and south of the border' (as the movie puts it) in a theoretically integrated Long Beach, California, high school.Īt first she's earnest and almost comically naïve, in her polka-dot dresses and pearls. In last year's 'Take the Lead' Antonio Banderas turned delinquent teenagers onto George Gershwin and the foxtrot.Īnd way back in the distant sands of time I recall Danny DeVito preaching Shakespeare to recalcitrant recruit Marky Mark - um, Mark Wahlberg - in 'Renaissance Man.'

In 'Dangerous Minds' Michelle Pfeiffer woke up her inner-city English class by getting relevant and quoting Bob Dylan. She earned her master’s degree and teaching certification from California State University Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.įor information about Gruwell, visit her website.įor more information about the talk, contact Mary Kate Boland, assistant director of campus activities, at 60.(CNN) - Movies about inspirational teachers never go out of style. Gruwell received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, University of California at Irvine. She also has written a memoir Teach with Your Heart, which continues to emphasize the power of teaching and how she affected these students. She founded the Freedom Writers Foundation, through which she helps other teachers incorporate her strategies and lesson plans in their own classrooms. Gruwell’s story received far-reaching media coverage on shows such as Oprah, The View and Good Morning America. Her former students dubbed themselves the “Freedom Writers” - in homage to civil rights activists the Freedom Riders - and published a book.

With Gruwell’s support, they chose to forego teenage pregnancy, drugs and violence to become aspiring college students, published writers and citizens for change. Gruwell is credited with encouraging her students to re-think rigid beliefs about themselves and others, reconsider daily decisions, and ultimately re-chart their futures. Through writing, my students discovered tolerance and respect for one another.” So I gave them a pen and told them to share their experiences through the art of writing.

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“In the beginning I was pretty naïve and did not know a lot about at-risk teens,” Gruwell noted in a web biography “I knew I could see past color and culture, but I did not know how to get to the hearts of these young people. Many of her students from this tough, racially divided school were deemed unteachable. When Gruwell entered Woodrow Wilson High School on her first day of teaching, she didn’t know what she was getting herself into. The film “Freedom Writers,” starring Academy Award-winning actor Hilary Swank, is based on Gruwell’s Theįreedom Writers Diary, a New York Times bestseller, which exposes both the journey and transformation of students who had originally been written off by the education system.

#Freedom writer pro free#

The event is free and open to the public.Ī widely known advocate both for teachers and students, Gruwell aims to encourage the audience to become role models of tolerance and gain respect for at-risk youth.

Presented by the College’s Student Activities Board (SAB), the talk begins at 7 p.m. She will share her experiences as a teacher and how she influenced 150 of her students to overcome social, racial and educational problems to succeed in graduating on Monday, Nov. Educator and writer Erin Gruwell, the author of a book that inspired the academy award-winning movie, “Freedom Writers,” aims to be a catalyst for change.