Freedom Writer in Tahoe

1/08 tahoe mt.news:


By Kathryn Reed

Gangs. Racism. Intolerance. Packaged together and they make for a pretty intense learning environment.
Watching “Freedom Writers” was like putting a mirror in front of many South Tahoe Middle School students. Not everyone liked what they saw. And they weren’t about to let the status quo rule.
“It changed the relationship in the classroom. They went through the school year hating each other and by the end they wanted to hang out,” said seventh-grader Dakota Cronin. “(The movie) really changed the way I looked at racism.”
The film has had a lingering affect. Students say self-segregation is no longer the norm at school.
“Nobody wanted to interact with anyone but their own race,” student Isabella Castillo said of life before seeing the movie. “There are still groups, but they’re mixed.”
Cronin, Castillo and Shane Whitt along with many of their classmates were skeptical last school year when their teachers took them to see “Freedom Writers”, a movie about a Long Beach school barely surviving -- because of the teachers and students – and how one teacher made a difference.
So inspired were these three students by what they saw on the big screen, that they are helping teacher Cindy Cowen bring one of the real life Freedom Writers to campus Jan. 24.
“I want to recharge the class from last year. What that class taught me last year is don’t give up,” said Cowen of why she is having Manuel V. Scott speak to the school. “There is a huge message of hope in that movie.”
A grant from the El Dorado Community Foundation is paying for the student assembly. Lake Tahoe Education Foundation is paying for Scott to speak at South Tahoe High School on Jan. 25.
The community is invited to hear him the night of Jan. 24 at STMS. (Time was not available when we printed this.) Lake Tahoe Community College and Lake Tahoe Collaborative are covering the costs that evening, though donations will be accepted.
Scott travels the world inspiring others to turn their lives around. His was a rocky road. He dropped out of school at 14. Drugs, alcohol and crime were part of his daily routine.
“I was once dismissed as ‘unreachable’ and ‘unteachable,’ and classified as an ‘English as a Second Language’ student,” Scott says on his website, “but something special happened, and I love sharing that message with others.”
He did not return phone calls.
All students at South Tahoe Middle School will have seen “Freedom Writers” before Scott arrives.
Anne Frank, Southern California gang bangers, STMS. They aren’t as different as one might think. Journaling is one of the positives they share. In the movie the kids, most who didn’t know much about Frank or the Holocaust, were enlightened by going to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
And then they started writing in journals much like Frank did with her diary.
Seeing how putting personal thoughts onto paper made a difference for the kids in the movie, South Tahoe students asked if they could do the same. They weren’t graded. It was more of a cathartic exercise for themselves and a chance for teachers to gain insight into where they were coming from.
“Since I started writing in the journal my life isn’t as stressful, as depressed,” Whitt said. He still writes.