I wear jeans, though

I saw Freedom Writers today. I had to. It was sort of required.

And boy am I glad I did. What a damn good movie.

Minor spoilers ahead!

Yes, the plot has been done before. Naive beginning teacher comes into ghetto classroom where nobody believes in the kids and they give her a hard time and she pushes back and bam! Kids are saved.

So it's not an original story. Why'd I like it so much?

Because it rings true. When people find out what I do for a living, they always compare me to Michelle Pfeifer in Dangerous Minds. That never felt right to me because things happen too easily in that movie. The class starts out too out of control, so the teacher goes home and thinks a minute and suddenly comes back with the answer. But teaching doesn't work that way.

Hilary Swank's character, Erin Gruwell, a business-suit wearing first-time teacher, slowly learns about the ins and outs of both teaching and dealing with the beurocracy. Teaching is not about cutesy lesson plans and stern discipline. Teaching is giving a rat's ass about the kids you teach, and that's one thing this movie points out very well. Gruwell makes everyone around her feel guilty about what they do for a living because they don't make enough of a difference compared to her, and that includes her husband. But instead of acting on it and making more of an effort, they all try to defend themselves by attacking her.

I'm a pretty good teacher. I care about my kids and I do creative activities with them all the time. Gruwell even stole one of my lesson plans. But this movie still made me realize that I don't do enough. I'm taking the weekend to work on new lessons to incorporate more of what I saw.

My only complaint about the film is that she doesn't have to deal with any kids who flat out reject her help. I've no doubt she got to most of those kids and changed a ton of lives, but there is no way in hell she didn't have a single kid who was too far gone. That's one thing even Dangerous Minds acknowledged.

But for the most part, if you have any desire to know what it's like to teach kids in the ghetto or to see the crap teachers have to face every day they go to work, watch this movie. Or if you just want to feel a little hope and awareness of the world around you, see this movie. Oh, hell, just see this movie.