The Freedom Writers Diary

Last updated
The Writers Diary of freedom
Freedomdiarybookcover.jpg
AuthorThe Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
SubjectLife Stories
Genre Non-fiction
PublisherTyrell Wickoson
Publication date
1999
Pages277pp
Preceded byThose Lips 
Followed byThis Media 

The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them is a non-fiction 1999 book written by The Freedom Writers, a group of students from Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, and their teacher Erin Gruwell. It is the basis of the 2007 movie Freedom Writers , starring Hilary Swank.

Contents

The Freedom Writers Diary was made up of journals that Erin Gruwell told her students to write in about the troubles of their past, present and future. The Freedom Writers name pays homage to the name of the 1960s civil rights group Freedom Riders.

After intercepting a racist drawing from one of her students, Gruwell compared the drawings to Nazi propaganda techniques. She drew blank stares; only one of them had heard of the Holocaust. As a result, she assigned them to read and write about the posthumously published 1947 book The Diary of Anne Frank (written between 1942 and 1944) and the 1992–93 non-fiction book by Zlata Filipović, Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo . [1]

The Freedom Writers Foundation continued with exercises and philosophies similar to those used in the original class, and tracks the progress of the original and continuing classes.

Plot summary

As an idealistic 23-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of "unteachable, at-risk" students. One day she intercepted a note with a racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust – only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels between these books and their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the "Freedom Writers" in homage to the civil rights activists "The Freedom Riders".

With funds raised by a "Read-a-thon for Tolerance", they arranged for Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California during the 1994/1995 school year, where she declared that Erin Gruwell's students were "the real heroes." Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition – appearances on Primetime Live and All Things Considered , coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley – and educational benefit. All 150 Freedom Writers graduated from high school and many went on to attend college.

Banning of the book in schools

On March 11, 2008, an English teacher at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, Connie Heermann, was suspended for a year and a half without pay for using the Freedom Writers Diary in her classroom against the wishes of the school board. [2] [3] Administrators objected to racial slurs and sexual content in portions of the book. [4]

In March, 2023, the book was removed from public school libraries in Martin County, Florida. [5]

In June, 2023, Utah State Senator John D. Johnson called the book pornographic and said that high schools are committing the felony of “accessory to the distribution of pornography to minors” if they have the book available to students. [6]

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miep Gies</span> Dutch citizen who hid Anne Frank (1909–2010)

Hermine "Miep" Gies was one of the Dutch citizens who hid Anne Frank, her family and four other Dutch Jews from the Nazis in an annex above Otto Frank's business premises during World War II. She was Austrian by birth, but in 1920, at the age of eleven, she was taken in as a foster child by a Dutch family in Leiden to whom she became very attached. Although she was only supposed to stay for six months, this stay was extended to one year because of frail health, after which Gies chose to remain with them, living the rest of her life in the Netherlands.

<i>Speak</i> (Anderson novel) 1999 novel by Laurie Halse Anderson

Speak, published in 1999, is a young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson that tells the story of high school freshman Melinda Sordino. After Melinda is raped at an end of summer party, she calls the police, who break up the party. Melinda is then ostracized by her peers because she will not say why she called the police. Unable to verbalize what happened, Melinda nearly stops speaking altogether, expressing her voice through the art she produces for Mr. Freeman's class. This expression slowly helps Melinda acknowledge what happened, face her problems, and recreate her identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Frank</span> Jewish diarist and Holocaust victim (1929–1945)

Annelies MarieFrank was a German-born Jewish girl who kept a diary in which she documented life in hiding under Nazi persecution during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She is a celebrated diarist who described everyday life from her family hiding place in an Amsterdam attic. One of the most-discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, she gained fame posthumously with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl, in which she documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944 — it is one of the world's best-known books and has been the basis for several plays and films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Tolerance</span> Holocaust memorials, racism and prejudice museum in California, United States

The Museum of Tolerance (MOT), also known as Beit HaShoah, is a multimedia museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, designed to examine racism and prejudice around the world with a strong focus on the history of the Holocaust. The museum was established in 1993, as the educational arm of human rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The museum also deals with atrocities in Cambodia and Latin America, along with issues like bullying and hate crimes. The museum has an associated museum and professional development multi-media training facility in New York City.

<i>The Diary of a Young Girl</i> Diary by Anne Frank

The Diary of a Young Girl, commonly referred to as The Diary of Anne Frank, is a book of the writings from the Dutch-language diary kept by Anne Frank while she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944, and Anne Frank died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Anne's diaries were retrieved by Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. Miep gave them to Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family's only survivor, just after the Second World War was over.

<i>Zlatas Diary</i> 1992 non-fiction book by Zlata Filipović

Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo (ISBN 0-14-024205-8) is a 1992 non-fiction book by Zlata Filipović, who was a young girl living in Sarajevo while it was under siege.

<i>Looking for Alaska</i> 2005 novel by John Green

Looking for Alaska is a 2005 young adult novel by American author John Green. Based on his time at Indian Springs School, Green wrote the novel as a result of his desire to create meaningful young adult fiction. The characters and events of the plot are grounded in Green's life, while the story itself is fictional.

Zlata Filipović is a Bosnian-Irish diarist. She kept a diary from 1991 to 1993 when she was a child helping in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of Anne Frank</span>

The following lists some references to the Holocaust-era Jewish diarist Anne Frank in popular culture.

<i>Anne Frank and Me</i> 2001 novel

Anne Frank and Me is a 2001 novel by husband and wife writing team Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld. Inspired by the life of Anne Frank, it follows a teenage girl named Nicole Burns who travels back in time to 1942 and inhabits the body of a Jewish Holocaust victim. The novel was adapted from a play written and directed by Bennett in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Myracle</span> American young adult novelist

Lauren Myracle is an American writer of young adult fiction. She has written many novels, including the three best-selling "IM" books, ttyl, ttfn and l8r, g8r. Her book Thirteen Plus One was released May 4, 2010.

<i>Freedom Writers</i> 2007 American drama film by Richard LaGravenese

Freedom Writers is a 2007 American biographical drama film written and directed by Richard LaGravenese and starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey and Mario.

Freedom Writers is a 2007 American film.

The Freedom Writers Foundation is a non-profit organization created to "inspire young, underprivileged students to pick up pens instead of guns." It was founded by Erin Gruwell, and John Tu is a benefactor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erin Gruwell</span> American teacher (born 1969)

Erin Gruwell is an American teacher known for her unique teaching method, which led to the publication of The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them (1999). The 2007 film Freedom Writers and the 2019 PBS documentary Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart are based on her story.

<i>Nineteen Minutes</i> 2007 novel by Jodi Picoult

Nineteen Minutes (2007) is the fourteenth novel by the American author Jodi Picoult. It was Picoult's first book to debut at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list. This novel follows the unfolding of a school shooting, including the events leading up to the incident and the aftermath of the incident.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hélène Berr</span> French note writer

Hélène Berr was a French woman of Jewish ancestry and faith, who documented her life in a diary during the time of Nazi occupation of France. In France she is considered to be a "French Anne Frank". She died from typhus during an epidemic of the disease in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp that also killed Anne Frank and her sister Margot.

<i>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</i> 2007 novel by Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a first-person narrative novel by Sherman Alexie, from the perspective of a Native American teenager, Arnold Spirit Jr., also known as "Junior," a 14-year-old promising cartoonist. The book is about Junior's life on the Spokane Indian Reservation and his decision to go to a nearly all-white public high school away from the reservation. The graphic novel includes 65 comic illustrations that help further the plot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Pick-Goslar</span> Close friend of Anne Frank (1928–2022) and Holocaust survivor

Hannah Elisabeth Pick-Goslar was a German-born Israeli nurse and Holocaust survivor best known for her close friendship with writer Anne Frank. The girls attended the 6th Montessori School in Amsterdam and then the Jewish Lyceum. During The Holocaust, they saw each other again whilst imprisoned at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Goslar and her young sister were the only family members who survived the war, being rescued from the Lost Train. Both emigrated to Israel, where Hannah worked as a nurse for children. They shared their memories as eyewitnesses of the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nadja Halilbegovich</span> Author, speaker, and peace activist

Nadja Halilbegovich is an author, speaker, peace activist and survivor of the Bosnian War and the Siege of Sarajevo.

References

  1. McGhee, Tom (2008-02-27). """Freedom Writers" tale inspires students"". www.denverpost.com. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  2. "Teacher suspended over controversial book". www.msnbc.com. Archived from the original on 2008-03-30. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  3. Teacher banned for using 'Freedom Writers' book Archived September 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "'Freedom Writers' founder defends high school teacher". www.indystar.com. Archived from the original on 2013-01-27. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
  5. "These books are banned in Martin County, Florida". 13 March 2023.
  6. "Utah lawmaker accuses school district of distributing porn to minors through books".