Trust in Freedom Writers and Stand and Deliver

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.

In both Erin’s and Jamie’s school, there was a fundamental distrust of the students by the faculty and a fundamental distrust of the faculty by the students. This environment led to a disconnect between the faculty’s methods and the student’s needs. When Erin and Jamie began to trust their students, that trust was reciprocated in time. Trust in the classroom led to better behavior in the classroom, more interest by the students, and greater expectations of each student’s work. These three factors, based on trust, allowed both Erin’s and Jamie’s class to flourish.

In both schools, the faculty did not trust the students. Because of the lack of trust, the students did not trust or respect the faculty back, since the facility did nothing to earn their trust. This environment led to disciplinary problems as the students tried to work the system to their advantage. In both schools, the lack of trust between students also contributed to a series of fights and other disciplinary problems.

This vacuum of trust was fixed when both Erin and Jamie put their trust in their students. When the students realized that both teachers trusted their abilities and their attributes, the disciplinary problems started to wane. In ...

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...alculus test, while the students trusted him to prepare them. Jamie raised the bar and put his trust in the students. The students realized this trust, and went the extra mile to meet the high standard Jamie was setting. In Freedom Writers, Erin trusted her students to read literature that was seen as over their reading level according to the administration. Erin trusted her students could do it, and the students excelled while trying to reach the high standard Erin put on her class.

Trust created the environment to learn and trust is what allowed both teachers to flourish in the classroom. For both teachers, though, trust in the students did not go very far when it came to gaining the support and trust of the administration. Both Erin and Jamie were criticized for thinking the students were too smart and not capable of that caliber of work or responsibility.