This past week I watched the movie Stand and Deliver. It has many similarities as Freedom Writers; however, it is not as well known. Stand and Deliver, a true story, follows the account of Jaime A. Escalante. Escalante is a new teacher at James A. Garfield High School who is determined to change the education system and challenge his students. The school’s students primarily come from lower to middle class families who are well below their expected grade level in academics and social standing. Being the new teacher at the school, the students regularly taunt him, yet as the year progresses he is able to gain their interest. He uses innovative teaching techniques, by using props and sarcasm to illustrate math concepts. He comes into the school …show more content…
teaching a basic math course, but throughout the year he realizes the students are capable of much more. He develops a program to teach his students well enough to take AP Calculus by their senior year, despite the lack of encouragement from other teachers at the school. In fact, one of teachers even says “you can’t teach logarithms to illiterates”.
Escalante’s course requires the students to take summer classes and Saturday classes. The movie also depicts how social and family life affects the students’ education. For example, one girl named Ana tells Escalante that she has to leave school in order to help her father at the family restaurant. Escalante shows interests and devotion to changing these students’ lives. He goes to Ana’s father and tries to convince the father to let Ana stay in class. After arguing, the father has Escalante leave the restaurant, yet the next day Ana is sitting in class. This is just one of the many examples when Escalante shows interest to change the lives of his students. Escalante and his students triumph when they take the Ap Calculus exam and receive their scores. Later that summer, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) notices that each of the students made a similar mistake on their exams. This calls into question the validity of their scores. Escalante fights for the students and their scores, as he believes that the ETS racially profiled the students. The students proud of their grades and their hard work, the students agree to take the AP Calculus exam again at the end of the
summer. Each of the students succeed by passing the exam. This movie does a great job showing how a teacher’s attention and awareness to the students’ lives and abilities can drastically change a student’s potential. Despite being told that his students were incapable of taking the AP by multiple teachers, he still persevered. In addition, Escalante and his students persevered when they were accused of cheating. He cares about their social and family life, and strives to make a difference. Teachers before hand were not able to make a difference like this. History tells us that Escalante established a program at East Los Angeles College where students could take a seven week summer session. He also played a vital role in establishing algebra courses in 8th and 9th grade at schools in the area. Students have reflected on the movie and their lives. Some have spoke about how Escalante would notice ambition and motivation. He would pull students from other classes and place the students in his own class. Other students have spoke about how their parents built relationships with Escalante. Parents trusted him unlike other teachers. A few years ago, Escalante passed away from bladder cancer. Alumni from Garfield High came from all over to show support for their beloved teacher. This movie depicts how showing another that you care can make a huge difference.
A fresh recruit to a discarded system is Mr. Jaime Escalante. In the film, Stand and Deliver, he had to adapt in his environment in James A. Garfield High School when, without prior notice, he was assigned to teach Mathematics instead of Computer. Quickly, as he set foot in the classroom, he had, most probably, a better discernment in human behavior. The reality of the high school he was employed in, he understood and tried to completely remove the universal gap between a traditional teacher and a disregarded student.
The theme of the “meaning of freedom” is a common theme between the two stories “A&P” by Updike, and Harrison Bergeron by Vonnegut. In both stories, the characters are take different routes to rebel from the standards of society. In A&P, gender roles are heavy, and Sammy is expected to conform, but he does otherwise by leaving his job. Harrison Bergeron takes place during a time where the human population is expected to be equal, but Harrison steps beyond these limits. These characters show that conforming to society truly does not make you free, in fact it holds you back from your full potential.
Erin Gruwell began her teaching career at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California where the school is integrated but it’s not working. Mrs. Gruwell is teaching a class fill with at-risk teenagers that are not interested in learning. But she makes not give up, instead she inspires her students to take an interest in their education and planning for their future as she assigned materials that can relate to their lives. This film has observed many social issues and connected to one of the sociological perspective, conflict theory. Freedom Writers have been constructed in a way that it promotes an idea of how the community where the student lives, represented as a racially acceptable society. The film upholds strong stereotypes of
The idea of freedom can be seen throughout Collection 2 in our textbook. Freedom can be seen in the short story “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela when it talks about the freedom of speech. Addition to that, an article “A People’s History Of The 1963 March On Washington” by Charles Euchner shows freedom in its article when it talks about the segregation occurring to colored men. Lastly, freedom is shown in the graphic novel “Persepolis 2: The Story Of A Return” by Marjane Satrapi as it shows high restriction.
Growing up, I contemplated a future in the education field; I enjoyed my experiences volunteering with children and I have always been intrinsically motivated to learn. When I started college, I decided to delve into the social sciences, but I never forgot about my interest in education. The summer of my freshman year, I joined the education team through the University of Arkansas’ community development program in Belize. I worked with my co-teacher (a senior education major), and education and literature professors to create creative writing lesson plans and methods to improve literacy for underperforming children. In Belize, my co-teacher and I facilitated daily literacy skill small groups for 2nd and 3rd graders and taught creative writing lessons with 4th and 5th graders. This experience not only strengthened my desire to work in education, but also awakened my awareness of how different levels of educational privileges affect students. I recognized, however, that while I was energized by this experience, I still lacked the skills and training that would allow me to most efficiently help
Both Erin Gruwell in Freedom Writers and Jamie Esclante in Stand and Deliver faced students stuck in low-income backgrounds and neighborhoods of crime. Despite the low achievement of these students, both teachers were able to foster a mastery of a subject to their students. Even though the subjects of English and math are extremely different, one method united both teachers and allowed them to teach their students effectively— trust. Erin and Jamie were successful because of the trust they put in their students.
Students dread the time of the year when they stop with their course material and begin to prepare for test. Everyone is in agreement that some type of revolution is needed when it comes to education; eliminating standardized test will aid the reform. The need for standardized testing has proven to be ineffective and outdated; some leading educationalist also believe this because the tests do not measure a student’s true potential. This will save money, stop labeling, and alleviate stress in students and teachers.
In the film “Freedom Writers” directed by Richard LaGravenese, There are many good film techniques that work together very well and teach us 2 very important ideas of how some of Erin’s students really live and how prejudice we really are as well as how lucky we are to be living like we are right now, because not everybody gets away with it this easy. These techniques also structure the film well too keep the audience entertained and teach us valuable life lessons such as racism and prejudice, some of these film techniques are: Diegetic sound, narration, lighting, and montage.
Freedom Writers Diary is a book by Erin Gruwell and was adopted by the film Freedom writers on the year of 2007. It is a movie that we watched during the class of computer fundamentals and it is said that it is adopted on the book of the ‘Freedom Writer’s Diary’ by Erin Gruwell. For us we used to assume things and easily stick stigma without them knowing. We don’t think before we act, the reason why blaming people is used as an excuse. Several people don’t put an effort to change the students’ behaviors and their racist problems because they assumed that they don’t have potentials.
“There will be no free rides, no excuses. You already have two strikes against you: your name and your complexion. Because of these two strikes, there are some people in this world who will assume that you know less than you do. Math is the great equalizer... When you go for a job, the person giving you that job will not want to hear your problems; ergo, neither do I. You're going to work harder here than you've ever worked anywhere else. And the only thing I ask from you is ganas. Desire.” Ramon Menendez (Stand and Deliver)
The most effective way to achieve something in our world also happens to be the most difficult to do. The two most effective methods of achieving something is taking or winning. Taking a stand is the most courageous act a person can do because often times they are going against the common belief of the people around them. All great leaders have one thing in common and that is that they are brave enough to take a stand. Taking a stand is more important and has a bigger effect on the world than winning does.
Every year many students are kept from graduating high school because of these exit exams. This makes students and parents very angry. Students who have had high passing grades throughout high school do not understand why they cannot pass exit exams. Sometimes the student blames him or herself by thinking that he or she did not learn enough, when in fact there is nothing wrong without heir knowledge. These students do not realize that they lack good test taking skills. Parents are angry that their child was kept from graduating because of a single test, even though the child had all the he credits required. This situation occurred to Lee Hicks, another student from Paris (texas) High School. Had he lived 14 miles away in Oklahoma, which has no statewide exit test, he'd have received a diploma and would now be serving his country in the Navy. Instead Hicks severs customers in a Paris supermarket; he won management's Aggressive Hospitality Award for 1996. "He's a great employee, a bright young man--extremely hardworking," says store director, Larry Legg.
In a place of extreme torment, this teacher is capable of bringing a light of faith in her students and from her determination she is able to show that is worthwhile to make a difference. Now days education is only about standardized testing and teaching a curriculum, rather than becoming a role model to students and change their perspectives of life. Therefore this movie teaches the enormous value and impact that a teacher can have in someone 's life and encourages teachers to exceed the limits and make education meaningful for students. In addition, the film inspires to pursuit a better future. It demonstrates that there is always hope to achieve big dreams and overcome the impossibilities. Finally, freedom writers teaches the humanitarian lesson of helping those who suffered, and being the change that they need to see. It is about becoming a hero everyday in the simplest moments of
The film Freedom Writers directed by Richard La Gravenese is an American film based on the story of a dedicated and idealistic teacher named Erin Gruwell, who inspires and teaches her class of belligerent students that there is hope for a life outside gang violence and death. Through unconventional teaching methods and devotion, Erin eventually teaches her pupils to appreciate and desire a proper education. The film itself inquiries into several concepts regarding significant and polemical matters, such as: acceptance, racial conflict, bravery, trust and respect. Perhaps one of the more concentrated concepts of the film, which is not listed above, is the importance and worth of education. This notion is distinctly displayed through the characters of Erin, Erin’s pupils, opposing teachers, Scott and numerous other characters in the film. It is also shown and developed through the usage of specific dialogue, environment, symbolism, and other film techniques.
...n people have nothing. If people had more compassion for others the United States would not have all the problems that it does today. Mrs. Erin Gruwell had compassion for the students; when they saw how much she cared they changed their perspectives on life. Against all odds toward against Mrs. Erin Gruwell, she had the power of human will to teach the student. The writer introduced several scenarios on how young innocent children were influenced by family and friends of the same racial background to create hatred and gang’s violence against other races. Five messages in Freedom Writer are: Non judgmental, Racism, having compassion, the power of the human will, and education. Being non judgmental, having compassion and having human will helped Mrs. Erin Gruwell educate the children at Woodrow Wilson Classical High School. Segregated by race, united with education.