Voice 1
Thank you for joining us for today’s Spotlight program. I’m Ruby Jones.
Voice 2
And I’m Joshua Leo. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
For Erin Gruwell, walking into Wilson High School was like entering a battle field. The year was 1994. It was Erin’s first teaching job.
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Today’s Spotlight is about Erin Gruwell. Erin is a teacher who believed in the students of Wilson High School. This story is about change. It is a story about hope.
Voice 2
Wilson High School is in Long Beach California, in the United States. It is a city school, in a poor and violent community. The students are from age fourteen to age eighteen. And many have problems learning. There are fights every day in this school. Many students belong to street gangs - violent groups. Some carry guns. Others use and sell drugs. Gangs fight for control of the city. Many students believe they will be killed before they are eighteen years old. One student says it this way,
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“I have lost many friends in an undeclared war. It is a war between colour and race. It is a war that will never end. It is a war that leaves family and friends crying for those people who have died.
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At Wilson High School races did not mix. White students stayed with white students. Black students with Black students. Asian with Asian. Latino with Latino. A student said this about beginning school,
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“On our first day of high school, we shared only three things: we hated school, we hated our teacher, and we hated each other.”
Voice 1
In her first year, Erin Gruwell worked with some of the most difficult students. She saw that her students had no hope. Everyone had told them that they would never be worth anything. Teachers, parents and other students had dismissed them. As Erin thinks about that first day she says,
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“I did not know how to change their attitude. I wanted to let them know they had a chance. That someone cared for them. I knew I would not give up on them. I was going to find a way to reach these students.”
Voice 2
But the students believed Erin would give up on them. The students tried to estimate how long she would stay. No one estimated very long. One student made it his goal to make Erin cry.
Voice 1
The student’s lives outside the class were difficult. Some students travelled a long way to school every day. Other students had parents who beat them. Some students lived on the street. Week after week, Erin did her best to teach. The students did their best to survive one more day.
Voice 2
One day, things began to change. A student made a picture of an African American boy in the class. The picture had a very large mouth - it was a stereotype of African Americans. It was funny to the students. But it was not funny to Erin. She told the class that it was like materials used by Nazis during World War Two. The students looked back at her with empty faces. No one knew what she was talking about.
Voice 1
So Erin changed her teaching plan. She got new books for the students, using her own money. She started with The Diary of Anne Frank. Anne Frank was a Jewish girl. She lived in the Netherlands during World War Two. And she had to hide from the invading Nazi soldiers. The Nazis killed many people - including many Jews. Violence surrounded Anne. She was trapped. She felt helpless. She wrote about these feelings and thoughts in her diary - a daily record of her life. The students related to all these things, as they read her diary.
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Erin had the students write about their lives. Like Anne Frank, they wrote about their difficult situations. Erin’s class became a place where the students could share their struggles. It became a place where they did not feel so alone.
Voice 1
The students began to listen during class. They showed more respect to Erin. They stopped judging each other based on race. They began to care about one another as people. The students decided to call themselves the Freedom Writers.
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Erin had the students write letters to Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank during the war. Miep answered these letters. Miep travels often, to speak with people around the world about her experiences during the war. And on one of her speaking trips, she visited Wilson High School. Miep told the students that they are heroes. This is because they are working for their dreams. The students felt special and important.
Voice 1
Erin took the students on trips too. Many students had never travelled out of Long Beach. Now, someone trusted and respected them. That was something they had never felt before.
Voice 2
During this time, Erin had to fight for many things. She was not doing things like everyone else. Some teachers envied her when she became popular. Erin also spent her own money for books and materials for the students. And she would stay late at school, so that the students could stay too. They did not have other safe places to study.
Voice 1
As the students wrote about their lives, Erin began gathering the stories together. She did not know if anyone would want to publish them. But she knew that the stories were worth reading. And others agreed. In 1999, these stories were published in the book “The Freedom Writer’s Diaries”.
Voice 2
Eight years later the book was made into a film. With the book and the film, the story of Erin and her students has become more popular. Because of this, Erin is now able to take her special teaching method to other schools.
Voice 1
Writing their stories did not make life perfect for the students. They still live in a divided community. They struggle against drugs and gangs. They cannot escape their situation. But the students have found their voice. They can control who they are going to be. One student said it this way,
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“I suppose it is never too late to change. If I did it, other people should be able to as well. It all depends on how much you want to change. I am blessed to have another chance at a clean start.”
Voice 2
Erin took a chance. There were jobs that would have been easier and safer. But she had hope. She was willing to take a risk to improve her students’ lives.
One student decided that,
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“Before, if I saw something bad happen, I probably would not have acted. I used to think, ‘If it does not effect me, why do anything?’ I know now that there is not a day that will go by when I will do nothing. It is better to take a chance and make a change, than to stand by and do nothing.”
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