I started teaching at Wilson High School in Long Beach, California in the fall of 1994. It was just after the Rodney King riots and racial tensions had spilled over into the school. After one of my student’s said, “I feel like I live in an undeclared war,” I decided to share Anne Frank’s diary with my class. I desperately wanted my teenage students to learn how to pick up a pen, rather than a gun or their fists to fight injustice in their community.
The diary had a profound impact on me
I originally read Anne Frank’s diary when I was in fourth grade, and I remember it having a profound impact on me – as I watched my students read her book (for many, it was the first book they had ever read from cover-to-cover) I was inspired all over again.
Anne Frank’s diary was a pivotal tool for me to teach about tolerance and acceptance. It truly resonated with my students and touched upon themes that they could personally relate to – discrimination, fighting stereotypes, and the desire to have a voice. Writing diaries themselves, actually gave them that voice.
Inspiring people to make a difference
My students’ diary entries were compiled in the book ‘The Freedom Writers Diary’. The film ‘Freedom Writers’ was based on this book. I am very proud of the film and think it will inspire people to make a difference in the world. Tolerance and acceptance is very important in our world today, and we hope that this film will be a catalyst to take a look at one another and focus on our similarities, just as the Freedom Writers did with Anne Frank.
Next month I will tell you more about how I approached the Freedom Writers project.
Erin Gruwell
THAT WAS INSPIRING
“Freedom writers” is a great book with a great influence.I’m glad Erin and her students helped bring Anne Frank’s dream alive.Like Erin,I too,was inspired by Anne.She’s taught so much about tolerance and humanity,so i can understand how and why Erin was inspired by Anne.Both “Anne Frank:the dairy of a young girl” and “The Freedom writers diary” are both books you can read to help inspire you and fell good about yourself.
i really didnt feel any compasion for the book in fact i thougth it was boring for she didnt make any difference in my life =]
i loved this book!! it inspired em in many ways just to believe and never give up faith i would recommend this book to any one!! its fantastic
what eo say ,i never read your book. i just come to heard it from “freedom writers” .this is an ossum story . i never knewthat racism is there in america too. i’m from india . here racism the caste discriminations are still alive….
My friends and famliy were inspired by the movie ” freedom writters “. My step-brother Chuckie , he’s a hard one to impress. I hope I get to have you has my teacher.
I am reading your book and my class is doing a biography project and we’re presenting it, i picked you! I watched the movie and was inspired!
This book showed me how similar I am to Anne Frank because Anne Frank has a dream to be a writer and I have this dream to be an actor and a musician/dancer… and I too keep a diary and I have other books where I write movie scripts and lyrics to songs which I also make tunes too. So she really helped me realize that I’m not alone… and that I can still fulfill this dream.
Anne Frank has inspired me to become a writer. I like to look up stuff about Anne Frank and learn what I don’t know about her and the Holocaust. On July 12, 2008, I got two books on Anne Frank, one a Definitive Version and the other has an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. Mrs. Roosevelt talks about Anne Frank and her threat of discovery and death. Anne Frank b. on June 12, 1929 and d. late February or early March 1945. I try to get everything I can get my hands on about Anne Frank. Thank You!
- Dixie Tate.
I just finish watching the freedom writters movie. I was really impressed what a teacher could to somechanges to her students. It surely depends to the individual to evaluate the story….
im doing a project on anne frank and the way her diary affected people both adults and children and from a kids point of veiw id like to remind you that most childeren in 4th and 5th grade only have access to the diary thru school and not only did anne write a diary she wrote thru other notebooks and many more other paper things writeing stories fables and even the beggining of a novel she even took the time to re-write her own diary as if it was going to be published later in her writeing career it is sad how her life had to end in thyphoid fever at bergen belsen
i love the movie. its my fav. i havent read the book yet but i hope its as good as the movie
I absolutely loved the official diary! I also very much enjoyed the BBC’s tv version of it. I always wonderd what Anne, her family, friends and the helpers in the Annex were actually like. I know she described them all with great detail, but it was all from Anne’s point of view. In a way I just wish she had got through puberty to see how much her Mother actually did for her. I absolutely loved it and I know someday I will go to the Annex in Amsterdam!