It’s a long time since I’ve seen a film that actually made me feel something, most of the time I end up doing something else while the film plays away in the background. I remember seeing trailers for this movie, thinking it looked really interesting and I wasn’t disappointed.

The film tells the true story of Erin Gruwell, a teacher who inspired a group of kids to see beyond their lives and to reach out for something more. The kids in her class were involved in gang culture in one way or another and all they knew was a life of violence. They hated anything or anyone not part of their group. Erin managed to break down the barriers of hatred by teaching them about the Holocaust and the ultimate gang of Europe – the Nazis. As the movie progresses, the barriers begin to drop as the kids learn to trust each other and they eventually become a family.

Inspired by The Diary of Anne Frank, the kids began to write their own diaries which were published in 1999. Erin fought to stay their teacher until graduation and then even followed them to college. They formed the Freedom Writers Foundation to repeat the process in other schools.

The film was just so inspiring, I often found myself in tears as the kids began to see beyond skin colour, accepting people for who they are, rather than what they are. The school system treated these kids so badly, refusing to even give them books because they felt they were too stupid to understand them or would waste them. Erin got two part time jobs to buy books for her kids and to take them out on day trips so they could see that there really was a world outside of the gangs.

This is what education should be about and it makes me sad that so many kids fall through the cracks in the system and never really find the beauty in knowledge.