A powerful and moving portrayal of the lengths one teacher in the US schooling system went to, in order to give one group of students a fighting chance in lives destined to be spent in gang violence on the streets at best and in ending in the grave at worst. Erin Gruwell quite clearly fought the system that really just housed difficult students (students that have a different world with different needs) and showed the schooling system that these students had to right to be not only taught with the same level as every other student, but that they were able to be taught. Erin enabled these same to find a purpose and to discover an unknown value to themselves that they had never believed. In a world where people are often written off because of their culture, socio-economic standing or their simple differences, Freedom writers is an inspiring look at what happens when one person looks first to understand the students' world view and reaches them through valuing their experiences as important components of who they need to be. It is a fantastic movie, even more so given it is based on actual events.