LYNN — Lynn English High School students moved the teacher whose story is told in the movie “Freedom Writers” to tears with their reaction to her lecture at the school Tuesday morning.
The group of 11th and 12th graders gave Erin Gruwell a standing ovation, cheered, and whistled for several minutes at the end of her presentation, in which she recounted her experience working with and earning the trust of at-risk teens at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif. She hugged students who rushed to her side as she exited the auditorium.
“She was asking us questions she asked at her school and I looked around and realized we all had so much in common — everyone related to each other,” said Zainab Alkaby, a Lynn English senior. “It was so inspiring. It showed us there’s hope no matter what you go through.”
Alkaby said all students viewed the movie in their English classes prior to the visit.
Gruwell took her first teaching job in a racially divided school of at-risk teenagers and, rather than writing them off as unteachable as other teachers had, learned to listen to what they had to say and see beyond their low test scores.
“When I walked into that classroom on that first day, I saw kids who didn’t want to be there and didn’t want me to want to be there,” said Gruwell. “I thought ‘how do I make them put down that fist or that gun and make them write a different story with a very different ending.’
“Each and every one of my students had been called dumb, stupid, or nothing — we were going to use different words,” said Gruwell.
She introduced them to literature written by people who looked and talked like them and faced struggles similar to their own. By learning to relate to the authors, they learned they could relate to one another. In doing so, she taught them tolerance and to apply themselves. Four years later, all 150 students graduated.
“Even though there is a country between us — there are 3,000 miles — I believe there are kids in Lynn, Mass. who are similar,” she said. “Just like Lynn, Mass., Long Beach, California is a melting pot.”
Gruwell asked students in a packed auditorium to stand if they knew someone who had been killed in a senseless act of violence, someone who has struggled with drugs, depression, poverty, and homelessness.
More than 75 percent of students stood after each question.
“Far too many of you are standing for someone who can no longer stand for themselves,” she said.
Gruwell encouraged students to change their story by channeling their feelings in different ways than turning to violence, including writing.
