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 Long Beach CA. The story is set in 1994, just after the racial turmoil caused by the Rodney King trial and the OJ verdict. Ms. Gruwell was a new teacher, assigned to teach a class of at risk kids. The racial tension in the LA area was apparent among the Black, Latino and Asian kids and one lonely and fearful white kid in her classroom.
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 Friday, so this post is on interpersonal competence.
Empathy – the ability to understand one’s thoughts and feelings without actually experiencing them – is one of the most important keys to interpersonal competence. Early in the film, Erin Gruwell realized that she had no frame of reference for understanding her student’s lives. So she concocted a brilliant way to get this understanding.
One morning, when the students arrived for class, the desks were pushed to the sides of the room, leaving a big open space in the middle of the room. There was a length of red tape that ran down the center of the open space. She told the students she was going to ask them some questions. If the students could answer "yes" to a particular question, they should move to the center of the room and stand on the tape.
Erin Gruwell began by asking some innocuous questions like “Who has the latest album by XXX (a recording star popular at that time whose name escapes me)?” Most of the students moved to the line.
Slowly she began to ratchet up the intensity and importance of the questions. “Who knows someone who is in a gang?” “Who is in a gang?” This one was met with stares of disbelief as school rules prohibited students from being in a gang -- and most of her students were affiliated with gangs in some way. Ms. Gruwell acknowledged this by saying, “OK, stupid question. I take it back.”
Then she asked “Who knows at least one person who has been killed by gang violence?” Every student went to the line. “Two people killed by gang violence?” Most of the students remained on the line. “Three?” A few students left the line, but the majority were still there. “Four or more?” Several students were still on the line.
This is a powerful scene. For the first time, Erin Gruwell was starting to really “get it”. She was beginning to understand what it was like for her students outside of school. She was beginning to develop a true sense of empathy for them and their situation.
Erin Gruwell also helped students develop their own sense of empathy. There is a scene in the film that takes place the morning after a Black student was arrested for murdering an Asian shop keeper. The student was innocent. However, he had been identified as the person who shot the shop keeper.
One of the students drew a caricature of a black person and passed it as a note to one of the friends of the unjustly accused student. When she saw what was going on, Erin Gruwell demanded to see the note. She became incensed, and told her students how caricatures of Jewish people that appeared in German newspapers in the early 1930’s were the beginning of the Holocaust. (As it turned out, none of her students knew what the Holocaust was, but that’s another story.) She used this juvenile caricature, to help her students understand that demeaning another person or another race in such a way can only lead to hatred. She helped them develop the beginning of empathy for one another.
By the end of the film, Erin Gruwell’s students had developed a real sense of empathy – for one another and for the people around them. This stemmed from her willingness to confront bigotry and hatred in her class, and from her willingness to learn about her students as people, not just students in a class that she leaves at the end of every day.
You’ll have to see the movie to see more examples of how Erin Gruwell used her interpersonal competence to teach her students. By the way, if you think I want you to see this movie, you’re right!
I’ve devoted this week to the movie Freedom Writers in an effort at showing a how real person – Erin Gruwell -- used the five ideas in the Career Star model – Self Confidence, Personal Impact, Outstanding Performance, Communication Skills – to become a real star in her field, education; and to make a difference in the lives of her students. I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
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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