Erin Gruwell Research Paper

All leaders can get people to achieve, but influential leaders get people to want to achieve. That’s exactly what Erin Gruwell, an urban area English teacher did. She made the people around her want to achieve. We all need someone positive in our lives who makes us want to do better and strive for excellence when we want to give up. Eventually, we will be able to motivate ourselves. Now, Erin Gruwell fascinated me the moment I learned how she influenced the lives around her. The more I read her interviews and listened to her lectures the more captivated I became. Erin Gruwell influenced her students to graduate, started the Freedom Writer’s Diary, and trains other urban area teachers.
One of the most significant things Gruwell did was influence her students to graduate. According to Erin Gruwell’s Autobiography, she had a classroom full of students who lived in racially divided communities and broken homes. Many of her students felt like an education had nothing to do with their lives. After all, they had bigger problems to worry about like if they would still be alive tomorrow. She really wanted to show them how important an education was. So, Gruwell use the Diary of Anne Frank to show them how similar their lives were to Anne. She also had her students write in composition books about anything

they wanted. By using these techniques, and many others, she engaged her students in reading and writing. To her satisfaction, all 150 of her students went on to graduate high school.
The next significant thing Gruwell did was start the Freedom Writer’s Diary.

According to Gruwell’s interview on Atlantic.com, she wanted to share her students’ stories with other kids in their situation, and show them how they can use an education to overcome their situation. Erin Gruwell turned her students’ daily journal entries about their life struggles into a book titled, The Freedom Writer’s diary, which eventually got published. This book influenced kids across the country because they saw what an education could do, and that they can overcome any situation in their lives. In 2012, Erin Gruwell said the Freedom Writer’s Diary is the go to book in juvenile

halls.
Erin Gruwell didn’t stop there, she now continues to train other urban area teachers who are in the same situation she was. According to her interview on interviewsbyspencer.com Erin Gruwell wants to teach other teachers how to engage their students into their lesson plans. Gruwell believes that today’s government is so focused on test scores; they take the passion out of teaching. She wants to bring back that passion and student-teacher relationships. According to the Freedom Writers Foundation homepage, Gruwell and the Freedom Writers have a 5-day training period where they teach the participants how to understand each student’s personal obstacles and how they can use these to engage their students to learn. After the completion, participants say they love their jobs again.
In conclusion, Gruwell influenced her students to graduate, started the Freedom Writer’s Diary, and trains other urban area teachers. As college students we learn better when we can tell our instructors care about our success. Erin Gruwell didn’t just lead people to success she made them want to succeed.