Dear Students of Film as Literary Device (BA Semester V)
Today we are going to watch the film "Freedom Writers" starring Hilary Swank. The film has been suggested by my course supervisor Courtney Cunningham.
The purpose of showing this film to you is to show how a teacher needs to adapt quickly to a situation and use the challenges that accrue to come out with flying colours.
I have been given to understand that most of you want to be teachers of English. This film is just a preview of how challenging the teaching profession can be. But the idea is not to scare you, but to give you an insight into the possibilities in the profession.
Not only does a person need to think outside the box but also needs to have empathy.
While watching this film, comment on at least 4 of the following issues:
1. Script of the film.
2. The various themes in the film (racism, violence, gun/gang crime and drugs)
3. Challenges before teachers to actually make a difference in the lives of their pupils. Ste
4. Stereotypes (Negative, racial etc.)
5. The teacher what Mulvey refers to as a 'gate to freedom'.
You could use the following links for your help.
1. http://zara-med-5.blogspot.in/
2. http://www.huffenglish.com/?p=467
Waiting to read your responses.
Best, Aashish Pande.
Today we are going to watch the film "Freedom Writers" starring Hilary Swank. The film has been suggested by my course supervisor Courtney Cunningham.
The purpose of showing this film to you is to show how a teacher needs to adapt quickly to a situation and use the challenges that accrue to come out with flying colours.
I have been given to understand that most of you want to be teachers of English. This film is just a preview of how challenging the teaching profession can be. But the idea is not to scare you, but to give you an insight into the possibilities in the profession.
Not only does a person need to think outside the box but also needs to have empathy.
While watching this film, comment on at least 4 of the following issues:
1. Script of the film.
2. The various themes in the film (racism, violence, gun/gang crime and drugs)
3. Challenges before teachers to actually make a difference in the lives of their pupils. Ste
4. Stereotypes (Negative, racial etc.)
5. The teacher what Mulvey refers to as a 'gate to freedom'.
You could use the following links for your help.
1. http://zara-med-5.blogspot.in/
2. http://www.huffenglish.com/?p=467
Waiting to read your responses.
Best, Aashish Pande.
sir i was trying to connect this film with Indian society
ReplyDeleteLike stereotype people we can relate them with Khap Panchayat or this honor killing issue
or hidden racialism in the society issue like vote bank....
and sir last thing how can i get rid of thin picture code stuff i don't like to fill code every time i am really poor in it?????????
Atikant
DeleteI am very happy that you are taking a lot of interest in this activity. Yes we can relate this to a lot of issues in Indian society but instead of racialism, a more appropriate word would be casteism.
We can also relate this to regionalism in India as well. e.g. people are classified and judged on the basis of a the states and regions they come from.
You cannot get rid of the picture and the code stuff. Even I am very bad at it.
Ashish Pande
Sir on your third point
ReplyDeleteI must say that as teacher of English one must give an interesting text to the students so that they attract towards study. Like in the film the 'ethnic minority' students have no interest in very romantic sort of text. So Hilary (Erin) gives them a text which is related to their lives like The Diary of Anne Frank. So the first challenge before a teacher to understand his or her student and make their study enjoyable and interesting. The next challenge is to maintain a smooth relationship between his or her personal life and his or her relation with the students, in which, Hilary failed in the film. The next challenge is to introduce new methods of teaching in the class like she introduce a diary system in the class and like you introduce this blog assignment system in our class. Sometime the government does not support the teachers so they face sometimes financial problems as in the film she does an extra job also and convince a rich man to donate 35 computers. In the end, a teacher who wants to change the life of his or her students he or she should support the students, motivate them and provide them good facilities.
Yes Atikant,
DeleteI fully agree with you that the texts should be chosen or decided upon by the teachers as well as the students by mutual consensus. Before designing the syllabus or deciding the texts for study the teacher must understand the needs of the students...we call this TNA (training needs analysis) in terms of language teaching classrooms.
But we must accept the fact that unlike the ideal situation that we are discussing here, we have a separate system. Things here are 'prescribed' by experts.
Slowly we are realizing the need of a learner centred classroom, but it will take some time.
I am glad you liked the film.
Sir, I felt this was among other things a protest movie, and the well chronicled theme of a group of angry youngsters and their sense of injustice has been explored here. Apart from the story, the other remarkable things about this movie are the acting and the dialogues.
ReplyDeleteComing to the script, the issues that were shown here, like - racism, youth violence, crime, drugs etc were some of the real issues facing the people of Long Beach, California in the 90's. Through the student characters, the reality of their insecure and oppressed lives have been portrayed and their fears and challenges have been given voice to. The hostility with which they started their year under their teacher Erin Gruwell was not because of any real insolence or disregard from their part, but rather a reaction to their circumstance and their constant need for self-defense. As Eva put it at one stage, "You don't know anything about us. You don't know about our problems" and "I hate white people...I know what you can do." Dialogues such as these throw light on the background of this youngsters and the history of torture and racist reality they've grown up in. These kids, living in this undercurrent of turbulence, realize that what they learn in class will not make a difference to their everyday lives. They come to High School not because they give a damn about education, but because they are forced by some integration program.
Through the character of the teacher, a reasonable solution has been provided. Erin is a young starry-eyed teacher, the kind who believes that "the real battle starts in the classroom". So, in her we find a teacher who earns the respect and love of her students, suceeds in generating interest in their studies mainly because she buys them books they could relate themeselves with, and gave them exercises which involved confronting their own problems. She is "a really good student", apart from being a teacher, who listens, tries to understand the reasons for her students' conduct, and does not take the easy way out of hating them back. So here we see a teacher, who, by being honest to her job, and through patience, enterprise and compassion suceeds in creating a difference to the lives of a group of human beings. So, we can look at this story from this perspective also, that how ahe suceeds in bettering the circumstances of a people - mired in racial conflicts and unrest - and getting them to rise above. She just tries - genuinely and sincerely she tries!! So we see that a class which begins with defiance clamors for their favorite teacher to stay on and help them graduate, by the time the year is out.
A very good analysis Ishan. I would not agree with you on this point that it is a protest movie. It is about a series of events that take place in a classroom and show that even the greatest of challenges can be resolved by firm resolution and the ability to understand.
DeleteThank you for the feedback sir. I did not mean "protest movie" in the way that we see certain social or independent films which focusses on certain social injustices. I simply meant protest film in that the sense of anger and injustice of the youth have been showcased in a moving manner, in this film. Probably the use of the term "protest film" wasn't exactly appropriate here. Hope the rest of it was okay. Thanks :-)
DeleteThe movie explores the moral responsibility of every person to do the right thing. The process of education is much more than delivery of context. It is shown in the film by a number of forms of self expression, for example diaries and discussions. And later we see interactions between Gruwell, her students and family.
ReplyDeleteSome of the themes embodied in the film include tolerance, trust and respect, inequality in education, and many more.
Other than introducing new course books and other activities by the teacher, I liked the 'Line Game' where students come and stand facing each other, where the focus was made on the similarity they were facing.
The film simply tells a story of the experiences of MS Gruwell, a young teacher who accepts a position teaching freshman and sophomore English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California.The efforts of Ms.Gruwell as a teacher to teach her students is appreciable. It is because her students are not ordinary students. They all are part of some crime, drugs, gang violence,racialism etc.
ReplyDeleteAll of them have their own stories and experiences from their real life to tell. Rather than studying they go to school in order to take revenge, fight and tease each other. They never show any interest in studies. So it was totally a Herculean task for MS. Gruwell to teach them and most importantly to make them realize what they actually are and what they are suppose to be.
Ms. Gruwell instead of teaching poetry, drama and other literature made her students read the diary of Ann Frank: the stories quite similar to their experiences and she made them visit ' Museum of Tolerance' which has the remains of II World War in order to transform them into new citizens.She wonderfully overcame all challenges. At the end they all became one family and they didn't want to leave their teacher.
MS.Gruwell had to pay for this attempt for example her family life.
The movie rather than a piece of entertainment it discusses a very important social issue.The film is able to tell a story that shows their lives, honest stories and have a teacher who listened and respected their stories enough to teach them instead of letting them fought with the crowds.
This film shows how young minds can be corrupted by racism and gang life and a teacher's long struggle to free her students from its chains.In her first class,Ms Erin is welcomed by a group of students imbued with racist sentiments.Each student is part of some gang, protecting their 'own' is what is expected and dying for their 'own' meant respect and honour.
ReplyDeleteThese kids lead a life of crime and misery. These kids carry the burden of pain and grief of losses and a guilt feeling that they couldn't do anything when their dear ones were taken away.These piled up emotions accumulated over all these years, now surfaces in the form of intolerance of other races.
These kids lack a sense of their personal identity. For them, their gang gave their identity.When Ms Erin entered their lives, what she tried was to arouse the unique individual hidden in each one of them.By developing a habit of diary writing in students, Ms Erin takes the first step in making students discover themselves.On various occasions these kids are given chances to speak out.Thus they understand that every one has a story to tell- real life stories of their struggle for existence.By reading Ann Frank's Diary and by meeting Jewish holocaust survivors they understand that people from all parts of the world have fears and sorrows similar to theirs.More importantly, they learned that they can raise above their problems and choose for themselves how they want to live.
This film was terrific! Very good! The acting by everyone, especially by Hilary Swank, was great. Films about our educational system have been moneymakers from The Blackboard Jungle, to Up the Down Staircase, to Stand and Deliver and now Freedom Writers. This film and Hilary Swank's lead performance inillary Swank plays Erin Gruwell, a teacher who ends up working with racially charged teens at a Long Beach, California high school. She starts out with a naive mentality that all she has to do is teach them and they will care but eventually she realizes that a change to her approach will get their attention. Her discussions end up revolving around the hate and violence that plague the students' everyday lives, bringing the students to realize that they have more in common than they initially thought. Along the way Gruwell must battle with conservative teachers within the school, who object to her new methods of educating her students. What ends up interesting the students and where the title comes from is the notebooks they are encouraged to write in by Gruwell. She gives them the freedom to write about whatever they want and it becomes a personal journal for most.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned, the story has been done before, but I enjoyed that the film concentrated equally on the students as well as the personal life of Cruwell. The film has plenty of emotion and is a constant reminder to those who are more fortunate than others in this world, that sometimes what most of us consider horrible in our daily lives, is nothing compared to others. it have an honored place among those previously mentioned.
THE movie Freedom Writers highlights many important issues including racism, violence, gang crime and drugs.These problems continue to surround the educational system even today. Though the movie does not render any solution to these problems but it is successful in telling the benefits of effective educational system.It also presents the challenges before teachers to actually make a difference in the lives of their pupils. In the movie Erin Gruwell is a new school teacher who comes to teach at Woodrow Wilson High school.Her enthusiasm is rapidly challenged when she realizes that her students are all "at risk" high school students also known as unteachables and not eager-for-college students she was expecting.The students self-segregate into racial groups, fights break out and they stop attending class.She not only meets opposition from her high school students but the department head refuses to teach them with books as they may get damaged and lost and instead tell her to focus on discipline and obedience.But the key point is Mrs Gruwell worked the system to fulfill her promises.She played politics and gamed the "system" to get things done.She went around the school administrators who would not let her do her thing and when she could not find what she needed within the school system she brought in outside help.She is determined to reform her high school students.In order to do so she takes on two part-time jobs to pay for more books and spends a lot more time at school.She intercepts a racist drawing by one of her high school students and utilizes it to teach them about the Holocaust.She gradually begins to earn their trust and buys them composition books to record their diaries and to talk about their experiences.Also she asks them to write their diaries in book form.She later compiles it and names it The Freedom Writers Diary.Thus we can say that the movie is successful in imparting a message of how to make a difference in students lives by making promises that matter and then keeping them.The real educational point in Freedom Writers is how did Mrs Gruwell made a difference with those kids.It tells how do we support members of a learning community to have a kind of trusting and good relationships that are necessary for optimal learning.It tells that education is much more than delivery of content.The movie has got one of the key elements of education exactly right that is right education properly done, is built on trust and deep relationships.Education is diminished when kids and teachers are given entirely new groups of people every year such that they must build new relationships over and over again.
ReplyDeleteSTEREOTYPES , RACISM and VIOLENCE
ReplyDeleteThe movie 'freedom writers' presents the negative stereotype people have within an ethnicity community brought up in a crime filled environment. The students in the movie come from segregated community where the races are grouped into different tribes. “You can’t go against your own people, your own blood.” . Like most people, these students are drawn to where they feel the most comfortable. Because they are always around their race and their race only, it is normal for them to cling only to people that look like them. During their lunch hours, it was very apparent of how segregated the students of Wilson High School were. Each race had its own section and no one dared to mix. The school was the site of an enormous melting pot, but the different ethnicities refused to blend together. The rich white kids, the Asians, the Hispanics, the Blacks, and the “druggies” all had their own separate sections. It was obvious that the divisions that took place during their lunch, and in their lives, would carry into the classrooms. The segregation had taken a toll on the students of Wilson High School, turning them into violent teenagers. “The war has been declared, now it’s a fight for power, money, and territory; we were killing each other over race, pride, and respect.”
The movie is based on strong stereotypes within the minority community in the USA, the communities included African American, latino, Cambodian, Vietnamese and Caucasian. Therefore the issues that affect them the most include racism, violence, crimes and drugs.Prejudice existed among the students because of their ethnicity backgrounds. The students were brought up in an environment filled with stereotypes about certain tribes in the ethnicity community. Therefore, they grouped themselves according to tribes based on how they were brought up back home. The students were involved in various crimes that included uses of guns and drugs. For instance, in one incident a student is seen with the intent of killing another based on ethnicity based on certain stereotypes the student who witnessed decides to hold back some information for the reason of protecting one of their own. The environment of the school wanted the students to become obedient forgetting to end the ethnicity prejudice that existed among the students. The students are seen struggling to free themselves from the environment that promotes ethnicity, crimes and racism. The students advocated to accept one another the way they are without considering the ethnic background. The environment of the school permitted existence of different races, this being the crucial reason for the students in the film t be so disheartened based on the isolation that existed between them.
This powerful film is based on the true story of a teacher named Erin Gruwell who was assigned to an inner-city high school plagued by gang violence and racism.Many of her students were in gangs, from broken homes, and in and out of juvenile detention. The students in her English class were pushed through the school system without being expected to learn, with the assumption that they are incapable of learning. Erin refused to give up on her students. In the face of them not caring about school, she sought to help them care, instead of abandoning them to their apathy. She worked sacrificially and tirelessly to be a support and encouragement to these young people. She sought creative ways to inspire them to want to learn, analogizing their life experiences with that of other people, like Anne Frank. These writings as well as class presentations began to help the students understand that while they were unique individuals, their problems were common across the bounds of race and ethnic concerns. That recognition began to break down the barriers in the class, and helped form a student body “family". She also provided every student with a journal in order for them to have a place to discuss their feelings, their fears, and their experiences.
ReplyDeleteShe is met with a lot of resistance on the part of the authorities at her school on the basis of budget restrictions, lack of materials, etc. But she arranges for money by taking up extra jobs and not only personally buys all new books for them to read but also takes them on field trips to museums and to dinner with speakers from the holocaust. The students are encouraged to draw from their personal experiences and are shown that they have potential to rise above the struggles that plague them. Erin Gruwell inspired her students to choose a different way from gang violence and mediocrity—she inspired them to choose to aspire to greatness.
Thus we see that throughout the film, Erin struggles to connect with her students, to make them believe that they can succeed, and to show them that their lives, experiences, and knowledge is valuable, all while attempting to unite them and to overcome to racial segregation and gang violence that is part of their daily lives.Therefore she makes huge difference in the life of her students by being their 'Gate to Freedom'.
The film Freedom Writers starring Hillary Swank, is a good movie choice for all who wish to be teachers in the near future. Though I found the movie a bit over the top as the class consisted of one or more students with every stereotypical problem that a racial group faces, what interested me was in spite of that, Hillary Swank did have the answer to every problem put in front of her. This can be seen as an inspirational film for every budding teacher as it shows the responsibilities of a teacher and the effect she or he can have on a student’s life. The teacher is shown to be not just someone who takes care of the student’s educational troubles, but she combines their personal and social problems with their school work to make them interested and in the process solve many of their issues.
ReplyDeleteThe script is an adapted screenplay from the book, Freedom Writer’s Diary written by Erin Gruwell who is portrayed on screen by Swank. All the stereotypes from the African Americans, the ‘Latinos’ to the Asians were shown with their racial troubles faced by many of that race group in the United States. The gang wars and violence and how teenagers are sucked into it is made clear through the movie. In spite of all that, the teacher has a major affect on their lives and helps them come of it. The age they are in is when they are most gullible and vulnerable. So it becomes the teachers responsibility to mould them into what they will become in the future. Swank is faced with many challenges relating to family abandonment, gang wars, loss of close ones etc in her students. She manages to get their problems together and mnake them more expressive In the form of writing about it. Balancing a personal life with work is a tough job for a dedicated teacher and it is shown in the movie well.
All in all this movie and the character of Gruwell is a great example of the responsibilities and hardships of a teacher.