As such, strategies rooted in the social development model would attempt to make predictions to the effect of preventing the onset of the implied activities by reducing contextual risk factors that lead to delinquency while increasing or magnifying the protective factors that are thought or believed to negate the identified risks. This viewpoint finds support in the presentations of developmental researchers, theorists, criminologists, and scholars in the disciplines of psychiatry, education, public health, and psychology(Tonry, & Farrington, 1995). Some of the most common predictive factors of offending include poor or failed child management, offending tendencies, separation from parents, low educational attainment, low intelligence, and antisocial behavior in children. (Laub et al., 1994
Racial segregation is a defining feature of the school. For instance, the English class (honors) is made up of white students, but one, a girl who no one thinks has the potential to excel. In the eyes of her classmates, she belongs to an inferior race and her abilities are therefore limited. The class teacher of this particular class, Mr. Guilford has a racist mentality, an inference that one makes from her assertion that before black and colored people came to the school it was only made of an ‘A-List.’ He detests integration and calls it a lie and ironically implies that pointing such things out might attract the ‘racist’ label. In as much as Victoria, the only black girl in the honors class has suffered racism and racial stereotyping
Freedom Writers stands out as one of the movies that has, for a long time, attracted the attention of commentators and scholars alike especially for the manner it highlights the struggles of adolescents and other people entering the young adulthood stage. The plot of the movie revolves Erin Gruwell, a teacher who finds herself handling students whose problems are as diverse as their backgrounds. With many of her students on probation, she is determined to help them lead better lives amid all the challenges. Notably, some of the students are struggling with their identity and their situations are made even worse by the overlap of problems like stereotyping and developmental changes. Examining the challenges and themes in the movie reveals that applying the social developmental model would help the students cope as it would address their behavioral problems and other general issues in the learning environment. This paper discusses the challenges at the school and how the social developmental model can be applied to the same context.
The problems the students are facing can be understood by exploring the intersectionality of the axes of social-economic and ethnic/racial inequalities.For instance, Victoria and Eva have to deal with racial profiling and stereotyping from not only their teachers but also their peers. The gang-related violence affecting most of the students in the English class captures attention. Each student has at least a family member or friend who has been lost life due to this violence. Through the journals or diaries that Mrs. Gruwell required them to keep, the audience can gain insight into the nature of their lived experiences. For instance, the Hispanic girl called Eva had witnessed a man get killed by her friends. She, in the company of her friends, found Paco, the man at the store, attempting to kill a black man they knew was from their school. After taking a shot at the black man, Paco missed and instead shot one of the students. After witnessing the incident, she got back in the car and appeared traumatized, psychologically affected. Her friends could only tell her that it was important to be able to fight for themselves and protect their own. Later Paco was charged, and it was even more traumatizing for her to be involved in the case as a witness. While her friends wanted her to lie to protect the gang, her conscience pushed her, to tell the truth of what had happened. She struggled a lot with her identity during the process, for she was faced a dilemma whether to lie to please people or just tell the truth and risk dislike and contempt. She opted for the latter. Her story is just an example of the hard experiences each of the students in Freedom Writersexperiences.
What is the movie Freedom Writers about
From the onset, one gets the picture of a learning environment where racism and discrimination along racial-ethnic lines are rife. Students can only talk to and associate with those of their races. In fact, this is something they are used to as most of them have been brought up in neighborhoods where racism and gang violence are the order of the day. One student expresses hatred for white people who are always demanding for ‘respect like they deserve it for free.’ Everything around is all about one’s race/color. Eva says ‘I hate white people.’ This expression evidences the extent of hatred and racism as openly expressing that is as normal as practicing the phenomena under focus. Why does she hate white people? Her hatred has grown out of her perception of whites: she knows they hate and look down upon her race so in a way she is only hating back. Eva and many other students struggle through racism for the most of the movie and teacher Gruwell does everything she can to help them deal with this problem.
Against the background of the issues highlighted above, it would be interesting to apply the social developmental model to help the students deal with their behavioral problems. Imperative in this regard is a need to address gang-related violence that emerges as one of the most common problems in the movie. An obvious line of thought would be to find a way of preventing gang violence and any groupings aligned to committing vices in the society. Before exploring the model, there is a necessity to comprehend the notion of prevention and how it is different from other criminological concepts of sanctions and treatment. According to Tolan (1995), it does not seem utilitarian to, in the crime prevention narrative, focus on all activities oriented to the comprehension social ills. It would be optimal to limit prevention efforts to those actions meant to prevent the onset of such activities in specific individuals and in certain locations. Here, interest would be how to apply the model to help manage behavior and other developmental issues affecting students in the school setting.
The Social Control Theory that also finds a place within the social developmental model has it that delinquency stems from weak social bonds. Here, missing or weak bonds in social institutions like the family and others like schools gain relevance. Adding their voice to this conversation, Laub et al. (1994) assert that criminal offenders share an array of factors or characteristics such as sub-standard rearing practices, dysfunctional families, poor/low school performance, weak or no attachment to learning institutions, and associations/relations with peers engaging in delinquency. In the Freedom Writers scenario, these factors emerge when trying to explore and understand why exactly most of the students are involving themselves with gangs and gang-related violence. Efforts to uncover and comprehend these factors should factor in the possibility of intersectionality in the same respect. For instance, lack of attachment to the school or particular influential actors within the school have a big impact. A good example is a case of Victoria and the honors class teacher called Mr. Guilford. The teacher’s conduct and attitude have suppressed any bond that would have existed between students and the school administration. That is the reason she opts to go to join Mrs. Gruwell’s class where she feels comfortable. An effective strategy here would be to improve relations between students and teachers so that there can be that attachment, lack of which is a strong predictor of delinquency. Student-teacher relations directly determine student’s attachment to their schools. For instance, it is wrong for Mr. Guilford to create an impression that the school would be better off with only white students as they are the only ones he considers capable and intelligent. This mentality is racist and be eliminated from the school so that it is not a defining feature of the management. That way, attachment to the school would be enhanced hence reduce chances of delinquency.
As such, strategies rooted in the social development model would attempt to make predictions to the effect of preventing the onset of the implied activities by reducing contextual risk factors that lead to delinquency while increasing or magnifying the protective factors that are thought or believed to negate the identified risks. This viewpoint finds support in the presentations of developmental researchers, theorists, criminologists, and scholars in the disciplines of psychiatry, education, public health, and psychology(Tonry, & Farrington, 1995). Some of the most common predictive factors of offending include poor or failed child management, offending tendencies, separation from parents, low educational attainment, low intelligence, and antisocial behavior in children. (Laub et al., 1994
Racial segregation is a defining feature of the school. For instance, the English class (honors) is made up of white students, but one, a girl who no one thinks has the potential to excel. In the eyes of her classmates, she belongs to an inferior race and her abilities are therefore limited. The class teacher of this particular class, Mr. Guilford has a racist mentality, an inference that one makes from her assertion that before black and colored people came to the school it was only made of an ‘A-List.’ He detests integration and calls it a lie and ironically implies that pointing such things out might attract the ‘racist’ label. In as much as Victoria, the only black girl in the honors class has suffered racism and racial stereotyping
Freedom Writers stands out as one of the movies that has, for a long time, attracted the attention of commentators and scholars alike especially for the manner it highlights the struggles of adolescents and other people entering the young adulthood stage. The plot of the movie revolves Erin Gruwell, a teacher who finds herself handling students whose problems are as diverse as their backgrounds. With many of her students on probation, she is determined to help them lead better lives amid all the challenges. Notably, some of the students are struggling with their identity and their situations are made even worse by the overlap of problems like stereotyping and developmental changes. Examining the challenges and themes in the movie reveals that applying the social developmental model would help the students cope as it would address their behavioral problems and other general issues in the learning environment. This paper discusses the challenges at the school and how the social developmental model can be applied to the same context.
The problems the students are facing can be understood by exploring the intersectionality of the axes of social-economic and ethnic/racial inequalities.For instance, Victoria and Eva have to deal with racial profiling and stereotyping from not only their teachers but also their peers. The gang-related violence affecting most of the students in the English class captures attention. Each student has at least a family member or friend who has been lost life due to this violence. Through the journals or diaries that Mrs. Gruwell required them to keep, the audience can gain insight into the nature of their lived experiences. For instance, the Hispanic girl called Eva had witnessed a man get killed by her friends. She, in the company of her friends, found Paco, the man at the store, attempting to kill a black man they knew was from their school. After taking a shot at the black man, Paco missed and instead shot one of the students. After witnessing the incident, she got back in the car and appeared traumatized, psychologically affected. Her friends could only tell her that it was important to be able to fight for themselves and protect their own. Later Paco was charged, and it was even more traumatizing for her to be involved in the case as a witness. While her friends wanted her to lie to protect the gang, her conscience pushed her, to tell the truth of what had happened. She struggled a lot with her identity during the process, for she was faced a dilemma whether to lie to please people or just tell the truth and risk dislike and contempt. She opted for the latter. Her story is just an example of the hard experiences each of the students in Freedom Writersexperiences.
What is the movie Freedom Writers about
From the onset, one gets the picture of a learning environment where racism and discrimination along racial-ethnic lines are rife. Students can only talk to and associate with those of their races. In fact, this is something they are used to as most of them have been brought up in neighborhoods where racism and gang violence are the order of the day. One student expresses hatred for white people who are always demanding for ‘respect like they deserve it for free.’ Everything around is all about one’s race/color. Eva says ‘I hate white people.’ This expression evidences the extent of hatred and racism as openly expressing that is as normal as practicing the phenomena under focus. Why does she hate white people? Her hatred has grown out of her perception of whites: she knows they hate and look down upon her race so in a way she is only hating back. Eva and many other students struggle through racism for the most of the movie and teacher Gruwell does everything she can to help them deal with this problem.
Against the background of the issues highlighted above, it would be interesting to apply the social developmental model to help the students deal with their behavioral problems. Imperative in this regard is a need to address gang-related violence that emerges as one of the most common problems in the movie. An obvious line of thought would be to find a way of preventing gang violence and any groupings aligned to committing vices in the society. Before exploring the model, there is a necessity to comprehend the notion of prevention and how it is different from other criminological concepts of sanctions and treatment. According to Tolan (1995), it does not seem utilitarian to, in the crime prevention narrative, focus on all activities oriented to the comprehension social ills. It would be optimal to limit prevention efforts to those actions meant to prevent the onset of such activities in specific individuals and in certain locations. Here, interest would be how to apply the model to help manage behavior and other developmental issues affecting students in the school setting.
The Social Control Theory that also finds a place within the social developmental model has it that delinquency stems from weak social bonds. Here, missing or weak bonds in social institutions like the family and others like schools gain relevance. Adding their voice to this conversation, Laub et al. (1994) assert that criminal offenders share an array of factors or characteristics such as sub-standard rearing practices, dysfunctional families, poor/low school performance, weak or no attachment to learning institutions, and associations/relations with peers engaging in delinquency. In the Freedom Writers scenario, these factors emerge when trying to explore and understand why exactly most of the students are involving themselves with gangs and gang-related violence. Efforts to uncover and comprehend these factors should factor in the possibility of intersectionality in the same respect. For instance, lack of attachment to the school or particular influential actors within the school have a big impact. A good example is a case of Victoria and the honors class teacher called Mr. Guilford. The teacher’s conduct and attitude have suppressed any bond that would have existed between students and the school administration. That is the reason she opts to go to join Mrs. Gruwell’s class where she feels comfortable. An effective strategy here would be to improve relations between students and teachers so that there can be that attachment, lack of which is a strong predictor of delinquency. Student-teacher relations directly determine student’s attachment to their schools. For instance, it is wrong for Mr. Guilford to create an impression that the school would be better off with only white students as they are the only ones he considers capable and intelligent. This mentality is racist and be eliminated from the school so that it is not a defining feature of the management. That way, attachment to the school would be enhanced hence reduce chances of delinquency.
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes ofdelinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Explaining delinquency prevention, Hawkins and Weis (1985) assert the prevention of delinquency ought to be responsive to causes as well as the interaction of etiological factors in the social development context. Fruitful delinquency prevention efforts ought to take into account the complexities characterizing causal relations and should target relevant factors in the manner they are noted to emerge and interact in the course of human development, more particularly adolescence in the case of Freedom Writers.
As per the above presentation, attention shifts to how different predictors (of delinquency) might –play out in during adolescence, one of the most significant stages of human development. Indeed, adolescence is a critical transitional period in the development of human beings and other species in the animal kingdom (Spear, 2000). In the human context, it is a crucial process of transition that involves gradual progression to maturity and general social independence. From its onset, individuals’ expectations and goals include increased social accountability, personal agency (to succeed in life) and fulfilled development and success potential. It has been conceptualized it as a psychosocial and physical rebirth process (Arnett, 2002). Many risks and challenges arise as one slowly enters the early adulthood period.The multi-faceted developmental transitions taking place during this period requires orderly reorganization of the individual as well as the context shaping emotion, cognition, social relations, and behavior. The social relations implied here are, according to Hutchinson (2015) those with peers, families, and communities (241). Identity development has also been said to take place during this stage where an individual self-defines him/herself in the manner he or she may be different from other individuals in the society (Hutchinson, 2015
Laub, J. H., Sampson, R. J., &Allen, L. C. (1994). Explaining crime over the life course:
Freedom Writers assignment
Having identified the factors (risk and protective) associated with delinquency, the objective of the social developmental model is to the factors’ causal relations and identify those that may need altering to prevent criminal activities. The point is to modify the environment the students operate in by first understanding the role it plays. In Freedom Writers, it is clear racism, segregation, and ethnic/racial profiling have played a crucial role in pushing students to delinquency (e. g gangs and gang-related violence). Curbing racism and associated discrimination would be a big stride towards addressing students’ undesirable behavior. Individual student behaviors deserve consideration in the manner they are influenced by the environment and adolescence as a stage of transition to early adulthood. Importantly, adolescence has been known to be the stage when youths naturally develop delinquent behaviors, so effective strategies should be devised so that the students can be assisted to cope with the challenge and risks that emerge during this turbulent stage.
Loeber, R., &Dishion, T. (1983). Early predictors of male delinquency: A review.
Geidd, J.N. (2015). The amazing teen brain. Scientific American, 312, 32-37.
Toward a theory of age-graded social control. InR. Postemoster&R. Bachman
There is a lot to like in FREEDOM WRITERS, and I admittedly got teary-eyed not once but twice, which is very rare for me. I was particularly moved by a section of the film during which Mrs. G, as she becomes known, introduces her students to “The Diary of Anne Frank”.
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By: Sara | Published: August 27, 2017 | Updated: August 23, 2017 |
I immediately thought of MUSIC OF THE HEART, with which this film shares many similarities
Free Freedom Writers Discussion Worksheet
It’s virtually impossible to leave a movie like FREEDOM WRITERS without being at least somewhat moved and at least halfway certain you’re going to go out and make a difference in the lives of everyone you meet.
All that being said, this would actually be a good film for parents and children to watch together. Issues of gang violence, race relations and the importance of learning and education would be wonderful discussion points, particularly for younger teenagers. In fact, below you will find a worksheet that could provide a starting point for some good back and forth.
Before you can say DANGEROUS MINDS, she walks into a classroom full of gang members, druggies and every minority stereotype you can imagine, and she quickly begins to question whether she has made the right decision to teach at Woodrow Wilson High School.
Swank is an actress who needs a really great script and really great direction to succeed, such as her Oscar-winning performance in BOYS DON’T CRY and the underrated THE HOMESMAN. Here she seems a bit lost, and the performance becomes a bit one-note. The script doesn’t help much, as it turns Erin Gruwell into a flawless creature – you can almost see the halo resonating above her tailored business suits.
I immediately thought of MUSIC OF THE HEART, with which this film shares many similarities
Mario is one of Hilary Swank’s students in FREEDOM WRITERS. © 2007 Double Feature Films − All right reserved.
The rest of the film follows her attempts and eventual success in not only teaching them but changing their lives. Suffice it to say, if you’ve seen MR. HOLLAND’S OPUS or MUSIC OF THE HEART or TO SIR WITH LOVE, you’ll be able to guess where this film is heading after the first 20 minutes.
FREEDOM WRITERS is based on the true story of a first time teacher who lands a job at a once highly esteemed high school that has been inundated with racial tensions and gang violence. The movie open with Erin Gruwell, played by Oscar-winner Hilary Swank, meeting with the head of the English department, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to change some lives and teach some Homer.
Free Freedom Writers Discussion Worksheet
Before you can say DANGEROUS MINDS, she walks into a classroom full of gang members, druggies and every minority stereotype you can imagine, and she quickly begins to question whether she has made the right decision to teach at Woodrow Wilson High School.
Even worse are the horribly underwritten, sometimes laughably bad supporting characters. The other teachers in the English department are such stock villainous characters, they practically do everything but twirl their oily handlebar moustaches. Imelda Staunton’s Mrs. Campbell appears to have a moment of redemption, but it is immediately forgotten in the next scene.
Swank is an actress who needs a really great script and really great direction to succeed, such as her Oscar-winning performance in BOYS DON’T CRY and the underrated THE HOMESMAN. Here she seems a bit lost, and the performance becomes a bit one-note. The script doesn’t help much, as it turns Erin Gruwell into a flawless creature – you can almost see the halo resonating above her tailored business suits.
Freedom Writers is a movie about a dedicated teacher in a racially divided Los Angeles school has a class of at-risk teenagers. Read on for our Freedom Writers movie review and free discussion worksheet. Use this worksheet with your children, classroom, or homeschool to facilitate learning.