Freedom Writers Blog

An Important lesson in the text is that people/teenagers should not make assumptions based on a person’s appearance. Using Alejandro’s clothing as an example. It’s a foolish metric and we all know it. We judge them by their clothing, the way they might smell, their long uncut hair. It’s not fair on them, because not all poor people look poor. One reason why this is an unkind thing to do is that external appearances are easy to manipulate. Symbols of success can be easily acquired by those who are not successful. Meanwhile, many successful people choose not to display their success with external symbols. When people do things like this it’s called stereotyping (group base) and prejudice (pre-judging). Other terms include physiognomy (judging character from the face) being superficial or judgemental, and the colloquial phrase “judging a book by its cover”. Teaching teenagers a lesson by telling them not to do things like this can be a really good lesson for them, if you give them reasons and converse with them about why it’s bad then they might realise that other people may judge them too without them even knowing it. And start to feel that maybe what theyŕe doing is wrong.

A positive role model in this text has to be Eva Bernitez. Her father was arrested in front of her eyes when she was only 5 years of age. She sees a guy get shot in front of her eyes when she was waiting for her first day of school. She’s most resistant to her teacher Erin because her deeply ingrained trauma from gang violence, systemic racism, and the loss of loved ones to the justice system taught her that trusting authority figures—like Erin—is dangerous. She also testifies against her own at court, she’s a 3rd generation gang member. Her attitude is strong, she triggers Erin to realise how much she really chooses moral courage over gang loyalty. What really makes Eva a role model in this story you may think? Well she demonstrates the power of personal transformation, and overcoming deep-seated prejudice to become an advocate for truth and empathy. Initially hardened by violence, her journey shows that individuals can change, learn to trust, and break cycles of trauma through education and vulnerability. After a while of Erin being Eva’s teacher she helped transform her by providing a safe space for expression, introducing literature that encouraged more empathy, and fostering a belief in her students’ potential.  She also helped by giving the students composition notebooks to write in anonymously, Erin allowed Eva to find her voice, process her trauma, and break free from a cycle of negativity. I really think that Erin helped Eva through so much just by being her teacher. And now that she had transformed it changed her into a more positive role model for everyone else in the class. What she went through was so hard on her and then to finally have a way to express herself through education made it such a beautiful story.