For teachers, the hardest part of the job is rarely explaining long division or outlining Dickens’ many characters; connecting with the students often presents the greatest obstacles.
Top: Ada Foley’s class of sophomores chats with “freedom writer” Sharaud Moore during a video conference held at Raritan High School in Hazlet on April 13. The Freedom Writers were a group made famous by the book by Erin Gruwell and the feature film produced by MTV. Bottom: Sophomore Dominic Delrusso (middle) and his classmates enjoy a laugh during the video conference. Raritan High School English teacher Ada Foley looked at the experiences of Erin Gruwell, author of “The Freedom Writers Diary,” and found a rare confluence of pop culture and educational opportunity, culminating with a video chat between Foley’s students and one of Gruwell’s students, Sharaud Moore.
PHOTOS BY ERIC SUCAR staff “The Freedom Writers Diary” and the movie “Freedom Writers” starring Hilary Swank depicts how Gruwell helped her troubled Long Beach, Calif., students overcome their problems through writing and self-expression.
Foley and her student teacher, Monmouth University student Jennifer Sloan, collaboratively developed a creative writing unit for their 10th-grade English classes, but Foley wanted to take it beyond similes and verbs.
“When students are asked to create,” Foley said, “they have a difficult time finding a place inside themselves they can create from.”
Gruwell’s ability to take literature and writing and forge parallels between classroom material and real-life experiences inspired Foley and coincided with her own methods.
“I am one of those teachers that strongly believes that everything I do in my classroom can be related back to the student’s life in some way, shape or form,” Foley said.
In preparation for the chat, Foley discussed the basis of short story and narrative writing with her class, while watching pertinent excerpts of “Freedom Writers.”
“The kids were really into watching the movie because it’s an up-to-date movie. Hilary Swank is in it … Patrick Dempsey is in it, it’s based on a lot of hip-hop music … and MTV produced it, so of course that’ll grasp their interest,” she said.
“They were really into it because it is about students in a classroom, like them,” she added.
This relevance helped to foster student interest in the program and in writing.
“Their faces lit up,” Foley said, when she told her students that a “freedom writer” would be speaking with them, “They never even considered that to be a possibility.”
Foley had contacted the Freedom Writers Foundation and arranged for her students to video-chat with Moore.
The excitement quickly spread, fliers were made, and the program was opened to other students as well.
One student told Foley that the fact that they were going to talk to somebody actually portrayed in a book and a movie is like meeting a celebrity.
“For the students to see that this is a real person, that they aren’t just some character in a fictional book, it can be a profound experience and it could be life-changing.”
Foley also saw an opportunity in the technological aspect of the program. She said she was very lucky to have a projector, Internet access and the ability to video-chat in her classroom.
“Taking this essence of technology that is so up-and-coming and being able to integrate this into the classroom is fantastic and so much fun. The kids see that we are using different outlets to teach them.
“The Freedom Writers Program we’re doing … offers the students a tangible resource to see not only the power of writing but how it can ultimately improve someone’s life.”
During the video chat, Moore made it clear that his life would be very different without Gruwell and writing.
“I’m from the part of Los Angeles, Long Beach, that you hear about in rap songs,” Moore said.
“It’s not just music to some people, we actually lived the life. I’ve seen the violence. I’ve been in gangs.”
Moore was born to a 16-year-old homeless mother. Moore said he and his mother moved often during the early years of his life, staying with various relatives and shelters.
In second grade, Moore tested at a genius level on an IQ test — he never had a problem with classroom material, he said.
“I tested high, always did my work. I was just the kid that always found trouble.”
This trouble started in elementary school with fighting and shoplifting, and by eighth grade, a gang had recruited Moore.
“I got into enough trouble all by myself before I got involved with gangs, but once I was initiated, my problems increased exponentially. I was always into something, I always had an altercation, I was always running from the cops.”
Later that year, Moore witnessed his first drive-by shooting outside his apartment.
“That’s when I realized there was nothing fun or good about being in a gang. But in my neighborhood, you can’t just leave and say, ‘I don’t want a part anymore.’ ”
In ninth grade, Moore began carrying a gun to school for protection from other gang members.
One day, while Moore dozed in class, he said, some students went to hide his backpack, the traditional retribution for those who napped at their desk. The gun fell out, and his teacher found it.
The principal expelled Moore, but in doing so, changed his life: he would meet Erin Gruwell and become a freedom writer at his new school, Woodrow Wilson High School.
“Erin did not allow me to be average, she did not allow me to just slide by and fly under the radar. She always challenged you every moment of your day,” Moore said.
Gruwell introduced Moore and her students to the benefits of writing and self-expression, which were completely foreign to them. According to Moore, their neighborhood culture did not allow them to share their feelings or pain.
“We were raised in a society where snitching is wrong and crying is for the weak,” he said.
“So, this writing Erin introduced us to took on a whole new meaning. It was no longer just a five-paragraph essay. It was no longer just answers to questions at the end of a chapter or vocab words and defining them. It was our actual thoughts and our actual lives being transferred onto a piece of paper, and it was the best form of therapy for us.”
As Moore and the other students became more comfortable with Gruwell and one another, they began to share their diaries and read them out loud.
“That was a way of getting our feelings out without feeling guilty or feeling like we were breaking the code of the neighborhood,” he said. Since his time as a “freedom writer,” Moore earned his bachelor’s degree and now teaches algebra.
“Those diary entries allowed the students to realize they had their own stories, their own experiences to tell,” Foley said. She said she hopes that speaking with Moore instilled a similar belief in her own students.
“A lot of kids don’t like to write, but I think this will help them realize the power of reading, the power of writing, finding your own voice, and even the importance of education,” she said.
Foley thanked her supervisor, Joseph Sinsheimer, and Raritan High School Principal Wayne Ramsey for their full support for the program. Foley said it would not have been possible without them.