Freedom Writers

Hello All,

I just finished watching the movie Freedom Writers. I have to say that it is my new favorite movie. It is about a high school English teacher that teaches at risk teens at a high school in Long Beach. These kids were from a disadvantaged background and were integrated into the new school. The school administration did not know how to handle these disadvantaged children. They wouldn't give them textbooks out of fear of students destroying them on a tight budget. They also kept claiming that integrating the students from disadvantaged backgrounds was a big mistake. They felt it was a big mistake integrating poor Blacks, Mexicans and Asians with the more affluent White wealthier kids.

The teacher teaches them about racial intolerance after she caught one of the students drawing a stereotypical picture of a black man. She starts off by teaching them about the holocaust after she finds out that they don't even know what the Holocaust is. These kids were shot at, had friends killed from gang violence and still did not know what the Holocaust was about. She started them out by having them read the Diary of Anne Frank. The school would not provide the books to the students because they felt they would just destroy the books. Instead the teacher had to buy the books with her own money.

The students were so moved that they wrote to Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank. They raised enough money to fly Miep Gies out to their school and she came out and visited. Unfortunately another actress played Miep in the film.

The teacher also took these children to the Mariott where they had dinner with Holocaust survivors. The Holocaust survivors in the film were real survivors and were the same survivors that met with the real Freedom Writers.

The movie was very uplifting and real. The movie is pretty close to the real story.

I love Miep Gies. She is almost 100 years old and still living. I would do anything to meet her. I watched her documentary and she is a lovely woman. In addition to the Franks, she hid her dentist. In the documentary of Anne Frank, her dentist's son met her for the first time in the documentary. I cried when they met.

I love the Diary of Anne Frank. I read it first in middle school, about the same time as the Freedom Writers read the diary. I have always wanted to go to Amsterdam. It is my dream to visit, maybe live there.

When I was in Europe a couple of years ago I visited Mauthausen. It was there that I bought a copy of Anne Frank's diary and read it on the train back to my aunt's apartment. I felt that it was appropriate for me to buy it there, so that the store there could profit a little from it. On the train, I read the book again and couldn't put it down. I first read it as a 14 year old. About 11 years later, it was like I was reading a new book. I saw things differently, and even identified with Anne a little more.

Anyway, that is all for now. My thoughts are scattered.