1. ENG 102 Discussion Groups
Group 1- Each character in the film symbolizes a possible response to the inadequate education
and opportunities Erin Gruell’s students receive. List at least 5 characters from the film and
summarize the type of response to inequality that each character symbolizes.
 Which 5 characters did you choose to study in the film?
 Take turns discussing in detail the characters you chose to study and their representation,
how are they similar? Different?
 What is your approach to inequality? Is it a problem or is it overblown? How does this
relate to current racial issues i.e. Ferguson, Missouri? How does it relate to education,
draw from Joel Best’s The Stupidity Epidemic and ideas on inequality affecting
education?
Group 2- List ways Erin Gruell’s classroom is different from the conventional education Sir Ken
Robinson and others critique in their TED Talks.
 In other words, what is Gruell’s classroom offering to these at-risk students that
traditional classrooms do not?
 What are some of the inequalities among students in the classrooms in Wilson High
School?
 Describe how the honors English students are treated differently from the “at risk”
students. Why?
 Why does Ms. Gruwell’s students hate and resent her at first?
Group 3- Keep a list of the various ways the film shows “us vs. them” categories and conflicts.
 What criteria do the characters use to define who is included in their “tribe” and “one’s
own” or excluded as “other” or “the enemy”?
 What point is the film making about “us vs. them” dichotomies?
 Discuss how these representations of different cultural groups are challenging or
stereotypical.

2.  What makes Eva choose to “go against her people” in the courtroom? Do you think this
was a good decision? How do her family and friends react? Do you think it’s more
important to “protect your own” or do what’s right?
 Why are the students so unwilling to associate with anyone outside their ethnic/racial
groups? Where those this intolerance come from?
Group 4- What is the connection the students in the film and the Holocaust?
 Why does the film’s director choose to show the students reading The Diary of Anne
Frank?
 What does the visit to the Holocaust Museum teach the students about their own lives?
 What is the connection between Eva and Miep Gies?
 What is the thematic link between The Diary of Anne Frank and Freedom Writers?
 Why is Eva so affected by the ending of Anne Frank’s diary?
 Miep Gies, the woman who hid Anne Frank, is a hero to Ms. Gruwell’s students. What
does Miep Gies mean when she tells Ms. Gruwell’s students, “You are heroes
everyday.”? How does the theme of heroism play into the connection of Anne Frank and
Freedom Writers?