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A review by rjosloff
The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them by Erin Gruwell
1.0
I will begin by stating that I did not read this entire book. I made it through 50 or 60 pages. I had not had any intent to read it, as I have heard more than enough stories about the fish out of water young white teacher who is able to "save" the inner city youth from the apparent inevitability of failure. A coworker strongly recommended the book to me and actually put it in my hand, so I decided to give it a chance.
As I read one journal entry after another, I was puzzled by the fact that every entry of every child seemed to be written in almost the same exact voice. The vocabulary and expressions used were not what I would expect to hear from a group of high school freshmen, particularly in a group of kids that was previously underachieving and hated reading and writing. Inner city dialect was juxtaposed with difficult vocabulary and phrasing that seemed adult and dated on almost every page. I skimmed through the rest of the book to see if there was any information on how the journals were edited, or if they went through any type of writing process with them (typically a journal wouldn't go through revision) but didn't see any explanation. Maybe I was just missing something. There also was not any description of how Ms. Gruwell was able to elicit the trust of all of her students so quickly (so that they would be comfortable writing about their crimes and personal issues) and get them to write pages and pages when they had refused to do any writing before. It seemed that she was able to have them writing full entries that were eloquent and insightful within the first month or two.
I know that there is truth to these stories. I know that this is a real class and Ms. Gruwell is a real teacher. I just can't get past the belief that these diaries are not fully authentic and that these words have been reshaped somewhere along the line; how can I tell how much and by whom? Why wasn't this addressed? Perhaps if the diaries were in their original form, complete with spelling and grammar errors, it would make more sense. As it was, I just couldn't trust it. These are real kids. They have real stories. I want to hear them in their words.
I would love to hear other people's opinions on this. Did anyone else have this problem?
As I read one journal entry after another, I was puzzled by the fact that every entry of every child seemed to be written in almost the same exact voice. The vocabulary and expressions used were not what I would expect to hear from a group of high school freshmen, particularly in a group of kids that was previously underachieving and hated reading and writing. Inner city dialect was juxtaposed with difficult vocabulary and phrasing that seemed adult and dated on almost every page. I skimmed through the rest of the book to see if there was any information on how the journals were edited, or if they went through any type of writing process with them (typically a journal wouldn't go through revision) but didn't see any explanation. Maybe I was just missing something. There also was not any description of how Ms. Gruwell was able to elicit the trust of all of her students so quickly (so that they would be comfortable writing about their crimes and personal issues) and get them to write pages and pages when they had refused to do any writing before. It seemed that she was able to have them writing full entries that were eloquent and insightful within the first month or two.
I know that there is truth to these stories. I know that this is a real class and Ms. Gruwell is a real teacher. I just can't get past the belief that these diaries are not fully authentic and that these words have been reshaped somewhere along the line; how can I tell how much and by whom? Why wasn't this addressed? Perhaps if the diaries were in their original form, complete with spelling and grammar errors, it would make more sense. As it was, I just couldn't trust it. These are real kids. They have real stories. I want to hear them in their words.
I would love to hear other people's opinions on this. Did anyone else have this problem?