Erin Gruwell | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Gruwell in 2015 | |
| Born | (1969-08-15)August 15, 1969 (age 56) Glendora, California, U.S. |
| Education | University of California, Irvine (BA) California State University, Long Beach (MA) |
| Occupations | Executive Director at theFreedom Writers Foundation,Educator,Author,Social Activist,Podcaster |
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Erin Gruwell (born August 15, 1969) is an American teacher known for her unique teaching method, which led to the publication ofThe Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them (1999). The 2007 filmFreedom Writers and the 2019PBS documentaryFreedom Writers: Stories from the Heart are based on her story.
Erin Gruwell was born inGlendora, California to Stephen Douglass Gruwell, a former baseball scout for theAnaheim Angels, and Sandra Faye Alley. Her parents divorced when she was still a young girl. She graduated fromBonita High School inLa Verne, California, and theUniversity of California, Irvine, where she received the Lauds and Laurels Distinguished Alumni Award. She earned her master's degree and teaching credentials fromCalifornia State University, Long Beach, where she was honored as Distinguished Alumna by the School of Education.
Gruwell originally intended to go to law school to become a lawyer rather than a teacher. After watching the1992 Los Angeles riots on news coverage, she decided to change her profession to a teacher because she believed educating students could make more of a difference. She reasoned, "I thought, God, by the time you're defending a kid in the courtroom, the battle's already lost. I think that the real fighting should happen here, in the classroom."[2]
Gruwell beganstudent teaching in 1994 atWoodrow Wilson High School inLong Beach, California. She was assigned low-performing students in the school. One student, a boy named Sharaud, had recently transferred to Wilson from a rival high school where he had allegedly threatened his teacher with a gun.[3] However, a few months into the school year, one of her other students passed a note depicting Sharaud (anAfrican American) with large lips. Gruwell told her students that it was drawings like that which led to theHolocaust. When one of her students asked her what the Holocaust was, she was met by uncomprehending looks—none of her students had heard of one of the defining moments of the 20th century.[3][4] Gruwell took the students to seeSchindler's List, bought new books out of her own pocket and invited guest speakers.[5]
After her year of student teaching, Gruwell returned to Wilson as a full teacher, this time with a class ofsophomores. Her fall semester got off to a rocky start due to student protests ofProposition 187—but Gruwell persevered and reached her students by asking them to keep journals and make movies of their lives, and by relating the family feud inRomeo and Juliet to agang war.[3] She also had the students read books written by and about other teenagers in times of war, such asThe Diary of a Young Girl,Zlata's Diary andNight.[6] Writing journals became a solace for many of the students, and because the journals were shared anonymously, teenagers who once refused to speak to someone of a different race became like a family.[4]
In the fall of 1995, Gruwell gave each of her students a bag full of new books and had them make a toast for change.[3][5] After that, she saw a turnaround in them. All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and many went on to attend college.[7]
Between 1994 and 1998, the Freedom Writers garnered a great deal of media coverage, including appearances onPrimetime Live,The View andGood Morning America.[8]
In 1998, after teaching for only four years, Gruwell left Wilson High School and became a Distinguished Teacher in Residence atCalifornia State University, Long Beach. Gruwell later went on to start theFreedom Writers Foundation, which aspires to spread the Freedom Writers method across the country.[8]
The Freedom Writers Diary is a 1999 book written by the Freedom Writers with intros by Erin Gruwell. It is the basis of the 2007 movieFreedom Writers, starringHilary Swank as Gruwell, and Gruwell is the subject of the 2019 PBS documentaryFreedom Writers: Stories from the Heart.
She has written an autobiographical account of her experiences, entitledTeach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers, published around the same time as the movie's release.
She has also worked regularly with theAnti-Defamation League, theUSC Shoah Foundation, theSimon Wiesenthal Center, and even theU.S. State Department, to promote religious tolerance.[9]
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