Recently, I saw the movie Freedom Writers. It is the true story of a remarkable teacher, Erin Gruwell, and a group of high school students in
This movie really touched me. I was impressed with Erin Gruwell’s commitment to her job. She succeeded against terrible odds. Therefore, I am going to do a series of five posts on Erin Gruwell this week. I am doing this to provide you with a real life example of how one person embodied all five of the points on the Career Super Star model – and became a star in her career, and with the kids she taught.
I hope that after you read these posts, you will see the movie, and log on to Erin Gruwell’s site www.freedomwritersfoundation.org to learn more about her and the kids she taught.
Today is Thursday, so this post is on communication skills.
Erin Gruwell demonstrated excellent communication skills in the film. In business, you achieve success by mastering three types of communication skills: conversational skills, writing skills and presentation skills. Erin Gruwell had a different challenge. She needed to develop communication skills that would allow her to communicate effectively with her students. This meant identifying cultural barriers to communication and then finding ways to get around them.
This wasn’t easy. Ms. Gruwell came from a liberal, white, upper middle class background. At best, her students saw her as a “bleeding heart” – someone who would pretend to care about them (or maybe even really care about them) during school hours, but who would forget about them after school when she went home. There is one very powerful scene in the movie where one the Latino students says, “I hate white people, especially white cops. White people think they can do anything they want to you because they’re white.” This was a sobering moment for Ms. Gruwell, and it deomstrated exactly what she was up against.
Obviously, meaningful communication is very difficult to establish in such a situation. Erin Gruwell did what she could to communicate with her students. She taught poetry by bringing a boom box to class to show how rap lyrics are a form of poetry, and that by listening to rap, you can begin to understand more conventional poetry.
She listened when her students laughed at her, for not understanding the message behind some of what they were saying. There is a very touching scene near the end of the film, where one of the Black students says “That ain’t going to cut it, Ma”. At first, she is offended, she says, “let’s get this straight, I’m nobodies mother”. The class gets very quiet, and then one of the Hispanic students says “It’s a sign of respect”.
And, as the movie title suggests, she achieved a breakthrough when she asked her students to record their thoughts in writing. She told them that there would be no grades -- because she can't grade the quality of people's thoughts. She gave her students a gift, the chance to express themselves and write about themselves and their life experiences.
In addition to communicating with her students, Ms. Gruwell needed to communicate with other teachers, and administrators. While there are only a few scenes where we see her doing this, in these scenes she is articulate and forceful in presenting her case. Also, she does a good job of not stooping to the level of the other teachers who attack and belittle her. She assumes, rightly so, that these teachers are envious of her success, and that to engage them would only be petty. She maintains her dignity when attacked by not fighting back. She let her actions and her success in teaching her students speak for themselves.
You’ll have to see the movie to see more examples of how Erin Gruwell used her communication skills to teach her students and to deal with people who attempted to undercut her along the way. By the way, if you think I want you to see this movie, you’re right!
Tomorrow, I’ll post about Erin Gruwell’s interpersonal competence and how she used it well to make a difference in the lives of her students.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense. Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.
I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Bud
PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open. Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.
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