Can Writing Be Used as Healing
“Can Writing be used for Healing”
Consider the following story
The teachers at Woodrow Wilson high school in Inglewood, California, notorious for it’s gang violence, drug usage, physical and verbal abuse, and racism, have begun to give up on teaching their students. They have witnessed abrupt seemingly unprovoked fights, verbal disrespect, and blatant truancy, all first hand in the classrooms. The Grade point averages of the students were plummeting through the years, due to lack of attention to the teacher, and failure to do homework, and classwork. The freshman class was considered the most unruly. There was little to no transition from middle school and discipline was lacking. Teachers were fearful for their safety. The teachers soon bastardized their normal pedagogies, and began to cope, and deal. Teachers stopped adhering to the academic readings on the curriculum, assigned for the literary development of the students. Teachers feared that the students would vandalize, or steal the books. Instead magazine styled diluted versions of the readings were handed out. These “readings” were filled with pictures, and offered no literary challenge for the students. The students were coherent to their teachers giving up, and retaliated with more acts of violence and disobedience (The students knew that they broke their teachers with their rebelliousness). The deadlock in teaching and learning continued until 1993 when Erin Gruwell, a first year teacher at Woodrow Wilson, implemented a different teaching methodology.
According to “Teaching Hope”, the insight of the struggles and triumphs of education at Woodrow Wilson from Gruwell’s perspective, Gruwell used interactive games in her class to break the barrier of racism. These game taught the students that despite the difference of appearance and culture, everyone has a story to tell, which validates their need for respect. This decreased the level of violence in her classroom dramatically. Gruwell then assigned her class to read “The Diary of Anne Frank” the story of a young Jewish girl fighting to survive during the Holocaust. The students absorbed the story. It was something that they could relate to. Similar to the students at Wilson, the Jews were victims of hate, violence, and poverty. Gruwell also assigned journals for her students to use. She explained the importance of telling one’s story. What Gruwell found in these journals shocked her. Her students were exposed to violence, drugs, and poverty from a young age. Many were abandoned by their families, and were forced to seek guidance from gangs. Some were born into gangs, and were obliged to commit crimes to ensure their safety, and protection. All had witness a friend or loved one being murdered in their neighborhoods. Gruwell learned that the war of the streets was right outside their front doors, and