Discussion Topic
Erin Gruwell's teaching philosophy and influence on her students in The Freedom Writers Diary
Summary:
Erin Gruwell's teaching philosophy in The Freedom Writers Diary is student-centered and unorthodox, focusing on relating lessons to her students' personal experiences. She influenced her students by inspiring them to value themselves and their potential, challenging their self-perceptions, and encouraging them to empathize with others through diary writing and reading about historical figures. This approach transformed many from "problem students" to "star pupils."
In The Freedom Writers Diary, how does Erin Gruwell influence her students?
In The Freedom Writers Diary, Mrs. Gruwell profoundly influenced her students.
Mrs. Gruwell influenced her students by inspiring them to value themselves. Throughout the book, many of the students did not believe that they were valuable, but rather saw themselves through their assigned labels of “problem students.”
However, Mrs. Gruwell challenged this belief by having her students read and relate to books that show how one individual can make a difference. Furthermore, Mrs. Gruwell encouraged her students to relate to (and even meet) heroic figures such as Miep Gies.
Lastly, Mrs. Gruwell encouraged her students to believe in themselves. By trusting her students and inciting their own appreciation for themselves, Mrs. Gruwell influenced her students. Many of her students went from being viewed as a “problem student” to a “star pupil.” As Mrs. Gruwell revealed:
“My once apathetic students seemed to transform themselves into scholars with a conscience.”
What is Ms. Erin's teaching philosophy in The Freedom Writers Diary?
Ms. Gruwell's...
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teaching philosophy is unorthodox, certainly far too unorthodox for her fellow staff members, who neither understand nor appreciate her radical efforts to get through to her students. They're too hidebound to old ways of doing things to change their approach. So when someone like Erin comes along, determined to shake things up, their instinctive reaction is one of incomprehension and hostility.
But Erin plows on regardless. She knows from her own experience that traditional teaching methods simply won't work with her students. The only way that she can get through to her students, to teach them about the realities of religious and racial intolerance, is by basing her teaching on their own lived experience. This way, the students will be able to relate more easily to the experiences of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipović.
Erin's idea is that by keeping diaries just like these two young girls in war-torn situations, her students will not just develop empathy but also allow them to cope much better with the vicissitudes of their daily lives. Overall, one can say that Erin's teaching philosophy is student-centered in that it revolves around the students and their experiences rather than being based in a body of knowledge that is then transmitted to students by a teacher.