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Freedom Writers

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I just saw Freedom Writers with Troy, John, Katie and Chantelle at Century 16.

Aside from the rude selection of teenagers in the theater, the movie was well done and was one of those movies that focused on the hardships and conflicts that exists between ethnic classes. It also raises the issue about how the educational system is structured.

The educational system classifies and rewards students for their achievements and merits, but then you also have the other side of the story – there are those who don’t succeed in school and these are the students that we push into a separate classroom with a different curriculum and different grading scales because, it is in my estimation, that our teachers have unsuccessfully taught them the true value of an education, or our teachers have given up on them. At my old high school, these were the students who ended up in classes in the basement, almost segregated from the rest of the school for math, language arts, and just about anything that is required for a “normal,” “well behaved” individual to “successfully contribute to society.” I’m not explicitly defining these terms, but I’m sure you know what I mean. These are the kids who hang out on the street corner who think they are thugs, or “hardcore” because of how they dress, walk or who they associate themselves with. Some of these are the ones who carry the attitude to get “respect” they are looking for. It saddens me to know that this is true, and it does happen – even at my old high school. Granted, I graduated 5 years ago, and things were a little better back in the day, but the principle is still the same.

The theater was filled with a great number of high school students that may fall under the description that I just described. These were the ones that were also rude during the movie, and one or two of them even got to chanting “white power” a few times over. Apparently for those select few, the movie was not a wake-up call to get their act together. I’m afraid that it might have been a glue to reinforce their current attitudes, or an outlet to bring out new hate. We even saw it first hand – two groups looked at each other wrong and exchanged words. Not a great way to end a night I guess.

I would recommend that you see the movie though. It was well done.