Author returns to work with Mat-Su students

PALMER — The teacher who taught 150 “at-risk” California students to write their life and live their dreams more than 15 years ago is headed here for the second time to inspire Alaska’s students.

In October 2009, author and educator Erin Gruwell visited Colony Middle School to tell the story of her first students at Woodrow Wilson High School, who came to be known as the Freedom Writers.

“When I walked into my first class as a new teacher, I could not have been less prepared to deal with the harsh realities of the lives of my students or the way the outside world would crash into my classroom,” Gruwell writes in her autobiography on freedomwritersfoundation.org. “The kids in my room lived in a racially divided community and were already hardened by firsthand exposure to gang violence, broken homes, juvenile halls, and drugs.”

That was in 1994, two years after the Los Angeles riots took place just a few miles away from the school.

Gruwell was told her students were stupid, beyond helping — they probably wouldn’t graduate, staff and faculty said.

“My students were far from stupid, but they had certainly given up on education. They felt as if they had no reason to care about school; the potential rewards of college and a career seemed remote, even alien,” she writes.

But as disdainfully as those students viewed her polka dots, pearls and privilege on the first day, she said, she was determined to give them hope and show them the power of writing and of will.

According to the Paramount Pictures movie version of the story produced in 2007 — called, simply, “Freedom Writers” — Gruwell started teaching using the works of the late rapper Tupac Shakur as part of the curriculum. The idea was to teach poetry on her students’ level. Freedom Writers say in the Frequently Asked Questions document on their website that the movie “was really accurate.” The Tupac lesson is certainly an illustration of the Foundation’s methodology: make connections first.

“I’ve always known that teaching is about relationships and the ability to build relationships with students, but I think what the Freedom Writers methodology did was it really confirmed for me that you’ve gotta meet kids where they’re at to bring them where you wanna go,” said Wasilla High School teacher Jason Marvel.

Marvel traveled to Long Beach, California, where the Freedom Writers Foundation is based, in 2007 for training, and had an essay published in the foundation’s book “Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers and Erin Gruwell” in 2009. He taught English at Colony Middle last year and has been instrumental in the Knight Writers program, which was inspired by the Freedom Writers.

As Gruwell did with her students, Marvel, Colony Middle Principal Mary McMahon and teachers Sacha Petitt and Tricia Kinney, among others, encouraged their students to write about their adverse experiences. In California, the effort resulted in 150 stories in 336 pages published as “The Freedom Writers’ Diary” — in Palmer, Alaska, the result was volume one of “With These Hearts and Hands: Journeys of the Colony Middle School Knight Writers.”

That was in 2011. Not all stories spoke of death, violence or depression, but each was primed and polished for publication with edit after edit, and throughout the process, students learned more about themselves.

Some even turned 180 degrees to move in a more positive direction.

“I’ve had a few students who’ve gone from failing every subject to really caring about what they’re doing and (having) really done well in all their classes,” Marvel said.

As the story goes, all 150 Los Angeles students graduated from high school, and most went on to colleges or universities, some currently pursuing master’s degrees and doctorates.

Although Alaska’s students may not face racial issues, for example, on the same scale or in the same way as Los Angeles students in the 1990s, they have issues of their own, and Gruwell’s methodology is broad enough to benefit all communities.

“Life hits us all at some point,” principal McMahon said.

McMahon referenced recent school suicides as an indication that Gruwell’s timing in paying Alaska schools a visit is impeccable.

“We know that there are kids that are hurting here, and they’re hurting for different reasons,” McMahon said.

Gruwell is scheduled to speak during a morning assembly at Colony Middle School on Wednesday, Dec. 3. Students from Burchell, Wasilla and Colony high schools as well as from Valley Pathways also will be in attendance. Even Bartlett High School is sending a bus full of students to the event.

Marvel and McMahon also are hosting the author at Evangelo’s Restaurant at 7 p.m., Dec. 3. “Leading Our Community: An Evening with Erin Gruwell” is the title of the event, which is open to the public. Light appetizers, coffee and water will be provided, and drinks will be available for purchase at the bar.

Tickets are $45 each, or $450 for a table of 10. To purchase tickets, contact principal McMahon at mary.mcmahon@matsuk12.us or Marvel at jason.marvel@matsuk12.us.

“(Our mission is) to inspire young people to be advocates for their dreams, advocates for positive social change by giving back to their community,” McMahon said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.