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CSULB
Professor Gruwell gives teens a voice
By Adrienne Figueroa
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Educators from
all over the state gathered at Cal State Long Beach Thursday
to learn about the development of a literacy project that
changed the lives of a group of local high school students
and the curriculum of a young instructor who struggled to
keep her pupils interested in their studies.
At times fighting back tears and speaking with a quivering
voice, CSULB Distinguished Teacher in Residence Erin Gruwell
talked about the lives of her former students, the Holocaust
and the birth of “The Freedom Writers” at the third annual
K-16 Conference.
Almost ten years ago, Gruwell was assigned to teach English
to a group of “at risk” students at Long Beach’s Woodrow Wilson
High School. Only interested in driving her out of the classroom,
the teenagers were taken by surprise one day when their instructor
vocalized disgust over a drawing she had found, she said.
The drawing, which had been created by one of her pupils,
depicted a caricature of a peer in the same class. Gruwell
explained to them that the same type of behavior is what started
the Holocaust.
The incident spawned a change in curriculum, which included
the introduction of “The Diary of Anne Frank,” several trips
to the Museum of Tolerance and visits by Holocaust survivors.
In teaching about the turmoil that many suffered at the hands
of the historical tragedy, Gruwell learned about the turmoil
that some of her students were struggling with.
In an emotional deliverance, the teacher told the silent crowd
at the campus event about the lives of four of her pupils,
one of them having lost 35 friends and family members before
he graduated high school.
She thought that in bringing literature about the human condition
to the class, students would be able to make parallels between
the characters in the books and themselves, Gruwell said.
The teacher’s tolerance education resulted in the creation
of the “Freedom Writers,” a collection of 150 of her pupils
who chose the name in homage of the 1960s civil rights activist
group, the Freedom Riders.
In giving the teen-agers a voice, it may also give them the
chance to change their destiny, Gruwell said.
“These kids can pick up a pen rather than a gun and pick their
fate,” she said.
Sharaud Moore, a Woodrow Wilson High School graduate and former
student of Gruwell, said that being involved in the Freedom
Writers exposed him to other people who were going through
the same life experiences as he was.
“It was a lesson on respect and acceptance of people of different
backgrounds,” Moore said. “It taught us that as much as we
think we’re different from one another, a lot of us are the
same.”
The Gruwell presentation was just one of a string of events
that occurred during the weeklong K-16 Education Conference.
Other speakers included Randolph Ward, Compton Unified School
District administrator and Jeannie Oakes, professor of education
and associate dean in the Graduate School of Education and
Information Studies at UCLA. Meetings about teaching improvement
and reform as well as student testing also took place.
Partnership Project Coordinator Coleen Maldonado said the
purpose of the event was to get people in the field of education
to work collaboratively in an effort to strengthen the education
system.
“The idea of the conference was to get people together who
were all trying to do similar work — who are trying to raise
student achievement in the state — and really work on education
for all students,” she said. “So, they have the same common
ideals, but they are doing it in different ways.”
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Andrienne
Figueroa/Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Cal State Long Beach instructor Erin Gruwell
signs a copy of her book before speaking at the K-16 Education
Conference.
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