Famous Room 203

October21, 2011 was a memorable night for CCC and the surrounding community. CCC had the pleasure to present Erin Gruwell for an evening of a true application of theory and educational practice.
Erin Gruwell is a young, energetic female who worked in a very poor and dangerous inner city school in Long Beach, California approximately 15 years ago. The fruits of her labor were multiple, but the world took notice when her class of social misfits compiled a book during her high school English class. The book, The Freedom Writers, was created in the now famous room 203. The story became so popular that it went on to be made into a movie. Although her presentation was very emotional at times by pointing out the trials and tribulations of hers it culminated with a truly uplifting message.Being in the presence of an academic audience was so poi net because she took a well known psychological theorist know as Eric Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs and tested and proved his theory is valuable and applicable to real life. She talked about her classroom full of students who found the stages of Maslow challenging and nearly impossible to achieve. They strove for basic needs, safety and some kind of feeling of belonging. She found it challenging to teach students who struggled with daily basic needs. They had no desire or interest in going up the pyramid of needs. Therefore they were stagnated and unable to be taught the desire to learn and achieve. The first step in the pyramid of need is hunger, thirst, and fatigue. When Erin Gruwell first met the class, she realized that many of them came from single mother homes, lived in poverty and were starved, and thirsty. Most of them had eaten little for days. The second stage in the pyramid is safety. None of the students in the class felt safe. They walked the streets outside their homes and on their way to school in fear everyday that they would get shot down and die at a young age. Many had already buried many close friends and a relative due to gang fighting.The third stage in the pyramid is belonging. These kids would join gangs, even though they knew that illegal activities could get them arrested or worse killed. Their desire to belong was so great it over rode their judgment because it gave them a sense of belonging to a group. Any group would make them feel like they belonged somewhere. Many of them were gang members, wore gang colors and actively participated in gang warfare. The fourth stage is esteem. These students had never reached this level of Maslow. They were striving so hard to get the lowest levels met that self-esteem and self respect were alien concepts to them. They felt worthless and deep down inside thought that an early death would not be a bad outcome. They had no constructive chances for recognition in achievement, feeling valued, or gaining respect from others. The fifth stage is cognitive. Her class had never read a complete book and some of them even had difficulty reading at all. They did not see the value in such activities and it made no sense to them to value learning activities. Their learning consisted of the street life, and streetwise techniques. The sixth step is appreciating order and beauty. Their lives had no order or beauty. They had constant discord in every aspect of their lives and finding beauty living in dirty, falling down development housing covered in gang graffiti of an inner city can make it difficult to see or be able to recognize any beauty. These students had no chance to achieve the last step of the pyramid unless something drastic changed in their lives. Self-actualization to find self-fulfillment and realizing their potential was totally unreachable for them. They were unable to achieve themselves let alone help others or recognize that they may even have possibilities.
With inspiration from positive role models such as Anne Frank Ms. Gruwell showed her class that there can always be hope even in the throes of despair. Each of the 150 students that she taught in room 203 graduated from high school. This was a totally unpredicted statistic for that population base. They all went on to college. Today many of them are teachers and one is a lawyer. She is very proud of all her students and goes about the country telling their story. All money that is earned through speaking engagements, book sales and royalties from the movie goes to a scholarship to aid future students for success. Each of the original students are mentors for the current high school students in that area. Ms. Gruwell showed her class that there can always be hope even in the throes of despair and proved that Maslow’s Hierarchy can be achieved.