Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Freedom Writers: Remove Racism through Education


Last night we were watching this 'film for change' - Freedom Writers, which is based on a true story. This is a movie that was not only well-made but also has been timed so right, because of the current situation the world is in right now.
Essentially, it's about a committed teacher with a noble cause who eliminates the visible and invisible racial borders between the students of her class, by educating them and liberating them from their prejudices. There's another kind of liberation at work here, liberation of the creative unconscious, that is, she makes the students write out their stories, their own true stories onto a diary which serves as the way to freedom, the way out of racism, the way out of the inexplicable hatred that they find themselves in. She finds innovative ways to teach the students about the irrelevance of hatred by enlightening them about the Holocaust and does all this at the cost of her own personal loss.
Primarily, a must-see movie for everyone, but otherwise, a excellent study tool for children especially teenagers all around the world. Although overt racism is now supposedly 'outdated', that is, we have legal regulations and the like, it is still very prevalent in more subtler overtones but nevertheless, filled with the bitterness that every form of discrimination engenders. Sometimes, we feel it in the air like a slow poison entering every cell of our body. I can't even begin to get into the heart of the topic, but the point here is, as we are maturing philosophically, we need to try and take that extra step towards eliminating racism. If we don't know how, education through this movie would be a step in the right direction.
For more information about the real-life teacher on whom the movie was made, check out Erin Gruwell at www.freedomwritersfoundation.org/

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ERIN GRUWELL is truly an exceptionally great Mentor!!All the world needs today is people like this who show the kids that there are immense possibilities out there in the world waiting for them to be explored.
If true stories like this are taken and shown to the public through movies, then people all over the world will believe that it is possible to bring a positive change in this world!
Freedom Writers is a well made movie!