![]() The writer of this diary entry speaks of a hazing ritual of a sorority to which belongs involving dangling testicles, one of the least clever parodies of a Christmas songs ever and humiliation. This particular passage reveals the extent to which taking part in the Freedom Riders program had consequences far beyond the classroom. It is the eureka moment explaining the origin of a name now almost as famous as its inspiration.īeing a Freedom Writer, I couldn’t understand how I just stood by and let all of this go on…At that point, I knew I didn’t want to be a part of this group or any group that degraded or humiliated people like that ever again. This entry follows Gruwell’s lesson plans on the Civil Rights Movement as part of her overall curriculum strategy of teaching tolerance as a necessary component of her discipline. This particular book includes not just entries from their teacher, but passages from certain students as well. This choice is inspired by famous teenage journal-keepers like Anne Frank. Gruwell’s “tolerance curriculum” mandates that all her students keep a diary. Then somebody suggest that we name ourselves the Freedom Writers, in honor of the Freedom Riders. It hit me! The Freedom Riders fought intolerance by riding a bus and pushing racial limits in the deep South. That was it! The bells were ringing, the sirens were sound. But perhaps circumstances would have been just substantially different enough that this revelation would have come to much less celebrated conclusion than the establishment of the Freedom Writers. Would Gruwell have eventually discovered the shocking ignorance of his students on the subject of Nazi atrocities even without the racist drawing playing a part? Almost certainly. It is one of those weird hiccups in history where the worst intentions of one person led to a revolutionary leap forward an ironic positive resolution. The picture in question was a caricature of a student-a troublemaker, to be sure-but a human being. This is the very moment in time that the life of Erin Gruwell changed forever. ![]() When a student timidly asked me, “What’s the Holocaust?” I was shocked. “This is the type of propaganda that the Nazis used during the Holocaust,” I yelled. When I got a hold of the picture, I went ballistic. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. ![]() These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
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