'Freedom Writers': An Inspiring Class Project

After seeing the trailer for "Freedom Writers," about an idealistic young teacher in an inner-city school, "people might think, 'I've seen this genre before,' " says Erin Gruwell, "but I think it's really different." She has a point; the movie's about her, her life, her classroom and her students at a tough Southern California school where she introduced her diverse, underachieving students to self-confidence, tolerance and success, all through the act of writing.

Hilary Swank plays Gruwell, who in 1994 was assigned to teach remedial English to students from gang-infested neighborhoods in Long Beach, where racial tensions after the 1992 Rodney King riots regularly boiled over into schoolyard brawls among whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians. The kids in Gruwell's class hated each other, and they had no faith in their preppy, perky new teacher until she had them read the diaries of Anne Frank and Zlata Filipovic and pushed them to write about their own experiences. By graduation, the group published a book of diary excerpts, calling themselves "Freedom Writers" after the Freedom Riders, a multi-racial group of civil rights activists whose 1961 demonstrations inspired the students.

Although the film, written and directed by Richard LaGravenese, brings all that to life, for Gruwell it's just part of a larger campaign to change how teenagers are taught. With the Erin Gruwell Education Project, Gruwell, her students and other educators develop curriculum materials, raise money for scholarships and visit schools, juvenile detention centers and seats of power to spread word about Gruwell's teaching methods and the diary project. When the Freedom Writers sold the rights to the book for the movie, proceeds went directly to scholarships for underprivileged kids, says Faye Walsh, executive director of the Gruwell Project. Among their supporters is new House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who attended a recent "Freedom Writers" screening.

Gruwell, who's every bit as bubbly as Swank's character, worked alongside LaGravenese to make the film realistic. She envisioned the movie having "a gritty, art-house feel that would appeal to a mass audience." The key, she says, was the collaboration between the original Freedom Writers and LaGravenese. "He met with the students and made composite characters from their entries," Gruwell says. "He kept trying to make a perfect synergy between the book and the script." In some instances, the dialogue is lifted directly from the book. "We wanted to keep the use of that language," the teacher says.

Although some familiar performers play the students, such as R&B singer Mario and Hunter Parrish (from Showtime's "Weeds"), some are untested newcomers, including Jason Finn, who identifies with his character, Marcus. "I grew up in South Central," Finn says, and experienced the same kind of violence and hopelessness as the Freedom Writers. Though acting was a dream, he says, "it was something I never thought I could realize" until he auditioned for the film.

Finn says he enjoyed working with the other actors, as well as meeting real-life Freedom Writers during filming. He also says he started keeping a journal of his experiences. "Doing this [film] was just a realization that anything can happen," says the actor.

A recent visit to Washington reminds Gruwell of her trip here in 1997 with her students, when they met with then-Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and held a vigil at the Washington Monument for friends lost to gang violence.

To Gruwell, Washington is "full of promise and hope and inclusion -- that testament that we can change the world."

She adds: "I think we can."