Freedom Writers is a movie based on the true story and diaries of students in Ms. Gruwell's class which takes place in Los Angeles, California in 1992. Erin Gruwell, a first time teacher, is hired to teach a lower level academic class at Woodrow Wilson High School. She knew from the moment she walked in to her less than inviting classroom on the first day of school, met her seemingly disrespectful students, and witnessed a fight in her own classroom that her year wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Her father, a lawyer and her reason for wanting to pursue education in the first place, was none the less displeased that Erin was wasting her time trying to teach students who didn't care to learn. However, Erin was excited to try and make improvements in her classroom, because having been around her father in the courtroom, she believed that by the time juveniles are fighting battles in the court it is too late, but the real fighting needs to happen in the classroom. Unlike many other faculty of Woodrow Wilson High School who wait for the day when the problematic colored students quit coming to school, Erin aspires to help them. It took Ms. Gruwell many weeks to accomplish any sort of breakthrough, but she persisted and presented learning to them in a way they would understand and be able to connect with. Her first assignment which would carry over the course of the year was to write daily in a journal she had purchased herself for each student. In these journals the student could write anything whether it be happy or sad entries, and she would only grade by their participation unless an individual wanted her to read their entries, which ended up being the case.

 

    Ms. Gruwell took on two additional part time jobs to help pay for new books for her students since the school refused to provide her class with any resources. She went above and beyond what any other normal teacher would've done to make her students feel special and make a connection with them. By the end of the year, Ms. Gruwell had transformed her disrespectful and culturally isolated class into a family; a family that actually got excited about going to school, making journal entries, participating, and working together on projects like fundraising to meet Miep Gies. Miep Gies is one of women who helped hide Anne Frank during the Holocaust, and after reading the Diaries of Anne Frank, the class wrote letters to Miep and paid for her to come to their high school and speak to them.

 

    Because of all the extra time Erin was putting into her job and students, her husband felt neglected and unworthy of all of her accomplishments, which lead to their unfortunate divorce. It was at this time that Erin's father started supporting her and encouraged her efforts. He could finally see that she had given the kids a new direction in life and provided hope for them . In the end, their journal entries from that entire year were compiled together in a book called the Freedom Writers, which was published in 1999, and was the basis for the movie.