UEA Convention keynote: Pen is mightier than the sword in Erin Gruwell’s class

Erin Gruwell speaks to teachers gathered for the UEA New Educators’ Workshop, held October 30 in conjunction with the 2007 UEA Convention.

By any measure, Erin Gruwell’s early days as a teacher in Long Beach, California were anything but normal.

She didn’t see backpacks as she drove to work, but students “packing heat.” There had been 126 murders in Long Beach following the Los Angeles riots and no one felt particularly safe. Gruwell’s father warned her not to eat any apples at the school. He feared they might have razor blades inside or be laced with strychnine.

Students separated themselves by race, gang affiliation, or just the side of the street they happened to be on.

Once in the classroom at Wilson High School, Gruwell said she found herself dealing with a group of students “who weren’t supposed to make it.” There was a boy whose father had died of AIDS and who believed his “ticket out of town” was to become a famous rap artist. Maria Reyes walked into class with an ankle monitor and a probation officer. Gruwell said Reyes was sporting a black eye and was “ready to rumble.”

Gruwell, whose story was the subject of the critically-acclaimed film, “Freedom Writers,” shared her experiences during the New Educators’ Workshop at the 2007 UEA Convention in Salt Lake City. More than 600 new and experienced teachers attended the event.

‘More Funerals Than Birthday Parties’

“I have been to more funerals than birthday parties,” Reyes told Gruwell. Reyes’ father had been in jail most of her childhood and her mother had only a second-grade education. When Reyes’ father got out of jail, he gave her a pair of boxing gloves. Gruwell said Reyes joined a gang in the hope that she could become more like her father. At 11 years old, she was in and out of jail. But Gruwell saw something in Reyes, and she knew she didn’t want her using boxing gloves any more.

Gruwell began studying children like Anne Frank and others who faced violence and uncertainty in their lives. Unable to get funding from the school, Gruwell used her Christmas money to order 150 copies of “The Diary of Anne Frank” for her students. Fearing her students would not read the material, Gruwell planned a “toast for change,” a party in which each child would receive a glass of sparkling cider and the opportunity to talk about how they would like their lives to change.

After accusing Gruwell of having “one too many lattes,” Reyes raised her glass and said, “I don’t want to be pregnant at 15 . . . I want to change.”

Days later, an angry Reyes, who had read “The Diary of Anne Frank” cover to cover, walked into class and threw the book across the room. She confronted Gruwell and asked why the teacher had not told her that Anne Frank dies in the end. Another student reminded Reyes that Anne Frank lives on because she wrote about her story.

It was at that point that many in Gruwell’s class – inspired by the courage of Anne Frank – recognized the power of picking up a pen and telling their stories. Gruwell forced her students to question long-held racial stereotypes and address their deepest struggles. With Gruwell’s support, they chose to forego teenage pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, and violence to become friends, storytellers, published writers, college students, and hopeful young adults.

Gruwell and her students captured their collective journey in the book, “The Freedom Writers Diary – How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them.” Through poignant student entries and Gruwell’s narrative text, the book chronicles their spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding.