The movie Freedom Writers is based on the true story of a first year teacher and her effect on a group of less-than-spectacular students. At a Long Beach, California, high school, an integration program was implemented to bring students of different backgrounds together, but the result is a constant struggle among the students. Enter Erin Gruwell, an idealistic first-time teacher, who is assigned to teach these "unteachables." None of the other teachers want to, or have to teach these students because they have seniority. Gruwell realizes that before her students will respect her, she must be able to respect them. She implements a system of journalistic writing; a system in which the students can feel safe to share their feelings without opposition. Once she has earned their trust, she begins to connect their lives to history by teaching about the Holocaust and relating their own personal suffering to that of the Jews. Gruwell was able to overcome the obstacle of teaching these students despite the lack of encouragement from her fellow teachers and all of her students went on to college and became successful members of society.

This film was a very inspirational film for a perspective teacher like myself. I found myself thinking that had I been put into a situation like that one, would I have reacted in the same way. Unfortunately, I feel that I would not have. I probably would have given up on the students and possibly resigned my position at the school. This film was able to offer me suggestions that I could implement into my own teaching. I recommend it to anyone going into an education-related field.