MOVIES: Freedom Writers

Average of 1,684,428 ratings:

4 stars 

 

This was an inspiring story and an awesome movie. I loved the part where Mrs. Grewell tells Andre "You're not failing.  I see you!"  That reminded me of some stuff from Martin Buber. She didn't see them as dangerous, troubled losers or as lost causes. She also didn't just see them as a group of students in her class. She saw them individually.   She did more than just try to teach a class. She interacted with them as people she liked and respected.   She engaged herself with them and ended up bringing a little bit of healing to a broken part of the world.  That was an amazing thing.

I do wish the movie had done one thing differently though. I wish they wouldn't have portrayed her fellow teachers as as horrible, selfish, hardened people who didn't care about their students. Maybe they were more calloused from teaching there for so long (who wouldn't be?). Yet, they stayed on teaching there while the heroine of the movie leaves after a few years to follow her students to college. It was awesome that she was able to connect with her students like she did. It just seems that the other teachers, especially the long-term ones, deserved more respect than the movie showed. They have a tough job in an environment that I can't even begin to fathom. Wouldn't you have to have some element of caring to stay on in those positions for so long?

Of course these kids deserve more than what they're getting. Every American child should have adequate educational supplies, proper books and a safe school environment that actively encourages them to succeed. We are failing to provide that. There are too many areas of our country where our children are suffering and are being destroyed by their environment. The level of need is so incredibly great that it seems hopeless. But, is that the fault of the teachers who are working in an almost impossible situation? No, it is more than that. It's also more than the system. The sad truth is that it is us. We should care more. Every one of us should be so outraged that we should be demanding more from our government for our children. But we're not. Maybe we're just as indifferent as the teachers they portrayed in the movie. And in the meantime we are failing our kids miserably.

There is a comic strip by Jim Borgman:
It takes a whole village to raise a child.
But the village is on crack.
The village is ruled by gangs.
The village doesn't know it's a village.
And the children aren't children anymore.