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Woodrow Wilson High School Life

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Recommended: Segregation in schools 1930s

This book was very educational to myself on schools in some tough environments with races being segregated to an extreme extent even in our society today. In my life I have it very differently with our town being mostly white and accepting of every color and race. As in comparison with this neighborhood being very racially divided into gangs of Asians, Mexicans whites and blacks. Hating each other for no real reason except that they were different from each other. But, for the kids in Mrs. Gruwell’s class they got another perspective put on their lives that they didn’t have to be screw ups, like other people in their life and community. The book was a good summary of Erin Gruwell's time at Woodrow Wilson high school through students journals …show more content…

In these rough parts of Long Beach, California they were living in compared to someplace like Pella they might as well be on separate planets. The city was heavily separated with gangs by race, this carried to the school being separated different people just did not hang out together. I can relate to this very little with our town being very ‘’nice’’ to everyone, with very small minority population I can’t see this making a difference but it is different from a heavily populated minority race in Long Beach. This just makes us more similar in our town this makes me think about the statistics that their are more African Americans In jail than whites. That these poor underdeveloped neighborhoods can lead to pain and suffering in school’s like these. If I were put in a school like this and thrown into a good or bad class just because of my race I would feel highly discrimination towards myself. So, I can’t Imagine how these kids would react they were put in classrooms like Ms. Gruwell's class just because they are black. The kids were put into a tough environment from the start in their lives. I believe this strengthened their ideals and opinions about the books Ms. …show more content…

The two kids I just described will most likely turn out to be a druggie depressed from being fat and the guy being her husband defending his family and joining a gang to get rid of people trying to hurt him. Then when a teacher like Ms. Gruwell steps in it can make a complete turnaround in this kids life with having a positive role model to look up to and keep them on pace with life towards the right direction. With all one hundred and fifty students graduating high school and most going to college a great teacher can make a change for the better in a student's life. This book makes me think a lot about roles in people's lives and how they affect others I think this book was written to show teachers how much good they can do in a student's life to change kids for the better for years. Likewise students can see what kind of work teachers go to, to make our lives better each and every

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The book was very informative of life when racism was more apparent. I think that books like this show that standing up to racism is an option. It shows that even children of a younger age were involved in the situation.

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1212 Words | 5 Pages

It shows how race and other social factors can have a huge impact on your life. Using a real life example was more beneficial than reading from textbooks. It shows readers that these things do happen and also gives them a chance to visualize it. The only issue I had with his writing and telling of the story was when Hobbs refers to himself as an “honorary black man” (page 130). I found it a bit problematic because he has privilege that black people are not afforded.

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947 Words | 4 Pages

Many of the boys pretended that negative interactions and stereotyping did not affect them, but their bravo personas only masked the fear inside. Fear made the boys feel weaker and less masculine, so they would deviate from social norms to regain respect and dignity among their peers and for themselves. Routine patterns of punishment eventually lead the boys to develop an altered view of thoughts, beliefs, and ways of behaving in order to survive the tough life set them. Chapter two concentrates on the history of Oakland, incarceration rates, youth systems of control, and the boy’s resistance to punishment and brutalization. The Oakland ghetto consists of a multiracial community, predominantly African-American and Latino, that are equally targeted and brutalized by police

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1316 Words | 6 Pages

In the journal article, “School Strictness and Disproportionate Minority Contact: Investigating Racial and Ethnic Disparities With the ‘‘School-to-Prison Pipeline” talks about how in schools with higher minority ratings have more prison like features such as, security or police officers within the schools, surveillance cameras and strict disciplines that must be obtained. Policing black lives and this article both share the same ideas on the topic of how minorities are treated in the educational system. The article explains

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1959 Words | 8 Pages

She includes many details from a first-hand account of her experiences with thousands of people hurling insults and lunging to harm her, a feeling that many readers have not had any experience with. In particular, it was hard but important to read many instances when adults looked at Beals, a fifteen-year-old girl, and made it very apparent that they wanted her dead. I have never been in any circumstance in which someone has looked into my eyes and told me they wanted to inflict harm on me on the basis of my race. Even less, I have never felt discriminated against because of my race. Beals evokes emotions in her readers as they are provided a lens to feel what it was like to live the reality for African Americans in the era of segregation and Jim Crow.

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1960 Words | 8 Pages

After reading it I do not view our society the same, and I most definitely do not view our education system the same. I will take what I learned from this story and apply it in my classroom as a teacher. I will be empathetic towards each and every student and their family and where they come from. There is value in every culture and if we take the time to understand it we will build more relationships than we could ever imagine. It will be incredible to see the way student’s lives are impacted when one person takes the time to try and learn and be a part of their culture and values it no matter

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697 Words | 3 Pages

This book is the best way to show that not all black people are thugs and that not all white people are rednecks. That is why I think that this book should be taught in schools and that at the very minimum that they teach the clean version. Preferably I would teach the old version to teach that racism is not born but picked up. The best way to end it is to start them out by saying that these words are bad and that you should not use these words outside of the book.

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2034 Words | 9 Pages

From the book I have learned the history of the KKK, other knight groups, their way of living, and their way of thinking. I have also learned how somebody can be a regular old citizen in our community, but is a part of a hate group and believes that Blacks, Latinos, Asians, people from the LGBT community, and Jews are the enemy. Not only are these groups are more than relevant all over the country, but there are young children who will keep these groups alive. The children will be corrupted into thinking that racial hate is normal way to think and will follow the footsteps into their parents. This book very much shows how the Neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, white nationalist, and other groups want a white dominated nation.

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624 Words | 3 Pages

The main central theme or message of the book is to never stay silent while witnessing discrimination. Society could be influenced in the sense that we do not always speak up when witnessing injustice or oppression, and are sometimes oblivious to it. Also by recognizing that many people are racist, whether they mean it or not. Sometimes when we are close to someone we overlook their flaws, so if we start to recognize that it can help us become better people.

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826 Words | 4 Pages

Louis alone are certainly alarming, I am most dismayed by the responses of the children from Morris High. It is evident that the children at Morris High do not fully understand the implications of racial inequality, nor do they regard the immense suffering of children in schools like those in East St. Louis. However, if I were a young white girl from a high class family attending Morris high, I too might have the same outlook. I likely would have been taught to acknowledge the inequalities faced by the minority, but would not have been taught the privileges I have experience for being white. If I were suddenly to start attending East St. Louis schools, however, the inequalities faced by my new peers would become much more apparent.

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744 Words | 3 Pages

The author demonstrates the problems in the school systems when Scout enters school she is reprimanded by her teacher, Mrs. Honeycomb for reading proficiently. She is commanded to “tell [her] father not to teach [her] anymore” and stop reading outside of school. Lee’s incongruity of the situation alerts her readers to the flaws within the school system. Lee satirizes the church when Scout and Jem are taken to church by Calpurnia, their black housekeeper, when the children’s father is unavailable. At this Christian church, the children are ridiculed for being white.

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716 Words | 3 Pages

One thing that is very apparent is the racism in that day and age and especially in that town where you see the children starting to realize and cope with it, but not being able to fully understand it. The same idea is still used world-wide and is almost an oath to the youth to protect them until they're ready for the truth, but you can't hide it forever. The first example of this would be when in chapter nine when narrates, “[Cecil Jacobs] made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s

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442 Words | 2 Pages

But after taking this class as representing race, I know the main concepts and themes behind the book and how they faced all things which are not appropriate for any kind of race or color. The videos we saw in class are full of violence and full of discriminative words that I can’t even imagine. I found that the purpose of the book isn't to give itemized techniques to "illuminate" this emergency, yet the narrator

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998 Words | 4 Pages

One of the kids Scout, learns a valuable lesson from his actions. A lesson to be learned from this novel is to do not judge anybody from their looks or social status. Social status was not mentioned much is this novel but, still do not do it. Do not think that just because somebody has different colored skin, that they are harmful or worthless.

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1308 Words | 6 Pages

Racism: Should It Be The Reason To Abandon Students? Freedom Writers written and directed by Richard LaGravenese , based on the book, The Freedom Writers Diary, by The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell .“At 16, I’ve probably witnessed more dead bodies than a mortician,” says a Woodrow Wilson High School student, before matter-of-factly describing a life in which gang and domestic violence are everyday occurrences.1 Racism , that is, basing on racial, people are divided into different social classes. Racism not only be the reason to prejudice students, but also be the root of violence. As Eva says: “schools are like the city and the city is just like a person, all of them divided into separate sections, depending on tribes.”

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