[Quotidian] Freedom Writers, a review

{Hilary Swank educates}

Freedom Writers (2007) follows the exploits of a new teacher in a tumultuous, urban high school.  Through Erin Gruwell's (Swank) efforts, we are able to explore the messy relationship between self, community, and education.

This film looks at literacy through a social history view, which examines the social background of the literate (or illiterate) individual in an effort to make sense of their literacy experience.  A socio-cultural perspective, furthermore, posits that literacy is "a social and cultural practice that individuals enact in relationship to their context and their communities" (Johanson, 2009, p. 410).

Freedom Writers, for example, examines the nature of violence within the community, and suggests that attitudes towards literacy are reflected in the expectations and experiences of those around the learner.  The students in this film, for example, often came from families where gang affiliation, not high school graduation, was the rule, not the exception.

There are devastating effects to this sort of mindset.  School is seen as some sort of prison that has no relevance to the learner's life, and teachers begin to believe that they can only manage behaviour, not educate students.

Basically, this concept suggests that students have become indoctrinated with the belief that education is unavailable, and therefore undesirable; and, as a result, teachers begin to believe that students are incapable of performing academically.

This obviously leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy which is reflected in the diagram below.  Figure 'A' can easily be replaced with any sort of identifiable group -- like boys, the financially disenfranchised, or certain ethnic identities -- and still hold relevance.

{This is Indexed = hilarious}

Moayeri and Smith (2010) warn against falling into this trap of pedagogical disenfranchisement, by stating that "predetermining students' intelligence and ability, especially based on the basis of culture, limits students' potential success" (p. 415).

Gruwell also speaks of this inequity:

"Why should [students] waste their time showing up when they know we're wasting our time teaching them?  We tell them, 'go to school; get an education,' and then we say, 'well, they can't learn, so let's not waste resources'" (Freedom Writers).

Her solution was to give these students resources, like new books, access to guest speakers, and the opportunity to go on field trips, and to make their learning experiences more authentic and relevant.  But, most importantly, she believed that her students were capable of literacy, and she acted under the expectation that they had both the desire and the ability to learn.

This is a great message for any educator approaching any student.  Students should not be judged (either positively or negatively) based upon their social or economic background; but, at the same time, being aware of an individual learner's socio-economic history can help direct the teacher in providing authentic learning experiences.  Gruwell, for example, focused on the Holocaust in order to engage her students.

Overall, this film presents a number of very important pedagogical issues that apply to education, literacy, and to life in general.  Despite my fervor for addressing issues of inequity within education, I can only give this film 3 out of 5.  My main issue with Freedom Writers is that it models itself after a true story when it is only based on a book.  This makes it seem like the extraordinarily fast advancements made in Gruwell's class actually happened, and that the transition that the teacher made from adversary to confidante -- with all of her students, no less -- is plausible.  I'm not suggesting that the merit of the pedagogical discourse in this film is lessened, just that it will take more than just the two movie-length hours to make such an important change.

Kerri, the literacy narwhal's, rating of Freedom Writers:

{Unicorn of the sea}

Johnson, A. A. (2009). Orlonia’s “literacy-in-persons”: Expanding notions of literacy through biography and history. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(5), 410–420. Retrieved from http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/ 

Moayeri, M., & Smith, J. (2010). The Unfinished Stories of Two First Nations Mothers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(5), 408–417. Retrieved from http://www.reading.org/publications/journals/