Chapters 21-26

Erin and her class had a very busy junior year. It started off with the drifting apart of Erin and her husband. She finally saw the toll her career was taking on their relationship, and her husband moved out of their apartment and eventually filed divorce papers. Erin then turned her attention completely to her students. They began a class diary that all students contributed to, and John Tu was generous enough to donate 36 computers to Erin’s class so students could type their diary entries into a book. After watching a documentary about the Freedom Riders, the students came up with a name for themselves, the Freedom Writers. They all wanted to share the Freedom Writers Diary, so the students ambitiously started fundraising for a trip to Washington D.C. to share the story with the Secretary of Education. Once the group returned from the trip a wonderful newspaper article was written about the Freedom Writers, which made their story heard across the country.

I find it unreal that Erin was so caught up in her career that she did not see what was happening to her marriage until now. There must have been signs that she was not paying enough attention to her husband. I thought the class trip to Washington D.C. was a great idea, but like many of the other events it doesn’t seem very realistic. There were almost 200 people on that trip which is a lot to control in a big city. I also think that Erin has been extremely lucky when it comes to her teaching career. She has gotten help from a lot of different people, and now she is going to be with the same class for their senior year.